Shining Bright
by RebelliousWaffle
Summary: Slight AU, I don't own Star Wars. Just my OCs. A painting from Sabine leads her to build up the confidence for a confession to Ezra. With the war heating up because of the destruction of the Death Star, Rebel command directs the crew of the Ghost to begin striking Imperial targets. Can Ezra and Sabine weave their relationship into war?
1. Chapter 1: The Painting

Sabine stood at the door to Ezra's room. She knocked twice, hoping Ezra wasn't in his room. She had something she wanted to do, and it was supposed to be a surprise. Hearing no sound in return, she quickly accessed the door control panel and sliced into the control network. Her slice quickly overrode the rudimentary security of the durasteel slab. Opening the door, she strode in, her footsteps making little noise on the durasteel floor. Her mind raced with possibilities of how to do her work. Making her mind up, she began to paint.

* * *

Ezra walked to his room, his mind going over events earlier in the day. They had attacked a Imperial transport and stolen some food from there. Later, they had distributed the supplies to needy people in Tarkintown. It hadn't been an unusual mission by any means. But Sabine had acted different on that mission. Preoccupied. Like she was planning something later in the day.

Ezra opened the door to his room without anything unusual happening. The durasteel panel sprang open freely, granting him access. Upon entering, he saw Sabine's work of art and knew what Sabine had been thinking about. A project as big as that painting… That would take some planning.

In it, the Ghost was floating in space. Around it was the view of the imploded star cluster that the crew had seen near Lira San. The star cluster looked beautiful, like Sabine had taken a photo, but her signature style was there: her vibrant colors, her liberal paint applications. Her artistic personality represented in a drawing. Obviously, it didn't show her more closed off side, but that didn't matter to Ezra.

Zeb walked in next, and he was equally awestruck. The sheer beauty of the drawing eclipsed the big Lasat's thoughts utterly, color overriding his normal functions. He stopped mid-stride simply to marvel at the masterpiece.

Finally, Ezra spoke. "It's beautiful."

"Thought you two would like it," said Sabine. She had seen the two warriors walk into the room and decided to follow.

"Yeah. Wow. Well, I have to go do something, so, see ya around, you two," quipped Zeb. He grabbed a small item off his bed and strode out of the room.

Sabine sat on the bed as Ezra admired the masterpiece on his wall. Ezra ran his fingers across the paint, trying to absorb the piece all at once.

"How are you able to do this?" the young Jedi asked eventually.

"Lots and lots of practice. Plus, I had some inspiration from a more realistic source," Sabine answered. Ezra sat on the bed next to her as Sabine leaned back against the hard wall.

"And what was that source?"

"The imploded star cluster. But I have something I want to tell you, Ezra." Sabine said the second part quickly so Ezra couldn't quite make it out.

"Sorry, could you repeat that?" Ezra asked.

"I…" Sabine had never been comfortable with admitting things like feelings. "I think I have feelings for you, Ezra."

The way that Ezra's eyes lit up was evidence enough that he returned the feelings, the love, that Sabine had finally confessed. He had had a crush on the young Mandalorian the moment he had seen her. But eventually, his crappy flirting had fallen away, and it had been replaced with a steady friendship with Sabine. And now, apparently, just being nice to her had done the trick. Since his flirtatious younger self had fallen away, he had tried to just treat her like a person, a friend, a crewmate. He still loved her, of course. Nothing could change that. But maybe she hadn't liked his insipid 15-year-old self, and enjoyed his older, calmer, collected personality.

Returning his mind to the present, Ezra looked at Sabine. His quick attunement with the Force a few seconds earlier had revealed that Sabine wasn't lying. But her emotions were still in turmoil, like someone had thrown a stone into a pond repeatedly.

Sabine, for her part, was staring at the handsome young man across from her. She had doubts as to how to continue. Let Ezra take the reins? Let the announcement run its course? Take things into her own hands? Yes, the last one sounded good. So that's what she did.

As Ezra sat contemplating what Sabine's declaration meant for the both of them, Sabine leaned forward. Her eyes, a beautiful brown, were tinged with longing, lust. Her desire just to be with Ezra overpowered her aloof attitude. Finally, as her arousement reached an apex, Ezra stole the lead.

Ezra leaned forward as well. His stare, unwavering, picked up the poorly masked feelings in Sabine's eyes. Now was his chance.

His lips met hers. The amber eyes of Sabine lit up. Ezra's darker blue eyes barely moved, aside from them widening incrementally.

The kiss was quick, fleeting. They broke apart quickly. Neither of the rebels were satisfied. Their passions, demanding more, took control of their limbs, and they rushed to each other. They kissed deeply, tongues fighting for dominance as ardor invaded the minds of both of the Rebels. Both Ezra's and Sabine's eyes closed in supplication. They didn't care if there was a mission to do at that point, and if there had been one, they would have ignored it - they just wanted to keep the kiss.

But, as all things must, the kiss, the first kiss for both of them, eventually ended. They broke off and just held each other for a while, not wanting to move away. Instead, they kept themselves within the other person's embrace.

After what seemed like only a few seconds, they broke apart. Looking at the clock on the wall, Ezra nearly jumped. It was almost ten minutes later! When did that happen?

"Oh, wow," Sabine said, also mightily surprised at how much time had passed. "Time flies, huh?"

"Yeah," was all the answer that Ezra volunteered.

"What's on your mind?"

"Nothing. Just…."

Sabine looked at her new boyfriend quizzically. Even if she concealed her own feelings, she was adept at tearing away other peoples masks, exposing how they felt.

"It's Lothal. It's changed so much." The statement was a guess, but apparently it was correct. Ezra nodded.

"It's burning. My home world… It's burning, and I don't know how to save it," Ezra said hopelessly. He felt overwhelmed. Sabine helped, but at the same time piled even more questions on.

"We'll figure it out, Ezra. We always do." Sabine toned her voice to sound as comforting as possible.

"Yeah, we do have a habit of doing that, don't we?" Ezra said with a small laugh. Sabine breathed a small sigh of relief. At least Ezra wasn't wallowing in self-pity anymore. He wasn't completely out of the sea of blackness, but it was a start.


	2. Chapter 2: Admissions

"Oh, come the frag on!" Ezra shouted as two Imperial AT-STs descended on the small group near the breach in the prison wall. A few prisoners had made it out already, but those remaining had no chance of running across the open ground with two chicken-walkers spraying the area with blaster bolts. The only people with guns were inside the prison complex, trying to fend off any remaining Imperial stormtroopers.

"Well, maybe they're just a little mad that we blew up their wall?" Sabine shouted. Then, as she dodged a explosive round, she corrected herself. "No, they're not just a little mad!"

"I can tell!" Ezra shouted back. He picked up a E-11 and began to shoot at the little slits that formed the viewports of the scout walkers. After a couple of seconds, he heard a cry of pain and knew that one of the shots had found its mark.

Sabine, on the other hand, had no trouble lobbing a detonator into the opening on top of the AT-ST. The crew barely had time to register that the explosive was there. All Sabine heard was someone scream, "GET-"

The shout was cut short abruptly as the head of the walker was turned into a roaring fireball, showering shrapnel onto the ground nearby with lots of little thunks. The legs fell down without a head to drive them, crashing into the ground with a guttural screech of metal on metal as they scraped against the shrapnel that had fallen earlier. The sound sent a shiver through Sabine, though she had heard it many times. It never got easier to listen to.

The other walker fell when Ezra got lucky again, and killed the second driver with a well-placed shot. Without any drivers, the walker stopped moving.

"Well, walkers are down. Let's get the captives out," Ezra said to Sabine. It seemed unnaturally quiet without any blaster shots or explosions. Sabine dashed over to the hole in the duracrete and motioned for the prisoners to run, accompanying the motion with shouted commands to, "Get the kriff out of this hellhole!"

The prisoners complied, most of them with grabbed E-11 blasters. Ezra stood by, pointing the way to a spaceport. But as he did that, he was scanning the crowd for two people. Rebel intel said that his mom and dad were being held there.

Finally, as the prisoners rushed by, Ezra saw his main aim in coming to the prison. Looking around bewildered were Mira and Ephraim Bridger. His parents. Telling Sabine to keep traffic flowing, he moved to the confused inmates.

"Hey, Mom, Dad!" he shouted. The two prisoners looked in his direction. Shock spread across their faces as they saw their son, standing tall with close cut hair and holding an E-11 in one hand.

"Ezra?" Mira said, her voice quiet.

"Yeah, Mom, it's me. Now come on, we gotta go, unless you want to be in prison," Ezra said with a cocky smile. He motioned for his parents to follow as he ran to the hole in the wall. Looking back, he saw his parents following as fast as they could. As he reached the wall, Ezra conversed with Sabine quickly.

"We need to take these two-" he pointed at his mom and dad, "with us. Personal favor, okay?"

Sabine nodded. She had a rough idea of who the two prisoners were. But first, they had to get out of the area. She called the comm. "Spectre 2, we are ready for extraction. Preferably soon," she radioed.

"Roger, Spectre 5. Get into the open. We are coming in hot," crackled through the commlink. As Sabine, Ezra, Mira and Ephraim sprinted into the open, the _Ghost_ thundered into the space above the plain. Kanan stood on the boarding ramp, hand outstretched.

"All aboard!" he shouted. The _Ghost_ hovered a few feet off the ground. Sabine and Ezra climbed on, then helped the two other inmates aboard the VCX-100. As they scrambled to their feet, a familiar-looking Togruta sprinted at the freighter and jumped aboard. It took the crew a moment to realize who it was.

"Ahsoka!" cried Ezra. He hadn't seen her since her disappearance on Malachor - in fact, no one had. She had been presumed dead. But as the ramp closed, the ship was rocked by TIE fighters.

"Somebody, get on the guns, keep these TIEs off me!" came over the intercom. Ezra, with a determined look, ran to the gunports as Sabine took the former captives to the common room.

"Wait, what's going on?" asked Ephraim. Unsurprisingly, he had never been in a space battle before.

"TIE Fighters have decided to attack us. You guys just stay here. The _Ghost_ can hold its own against them," answered Sabine. Ahsoka saw the question forming on Mira's lips and answered for Sabine.

"The _Ghost_ is this ship," the Togruta quickly explained. Understanding flashed across Mira's face. Ephraim posed the next question.

"How do you know these people?"

"I've worked with them before. I was one of Ezra's Jedi mentors. We went to Malachor, where I dueled Darth Vader and then was captured by the Empire."

 _She makes it sound so simple,_ Sabine thought. Ezra had told her the details of the disastrous mission on Malachor at her request. Kanan being blinded, Ahsoka going missing, and such. But he had elaborated it, making every detail seem realistic. Ahsoka's sum-up seemed fairly brutal.

Ahsoka was talking again. "Yes, I am a Jedi." Apparently, while Sabine was reminiscing, one of Ezra's parents had asked some sort of question.

"And Ezra is too?" asked Mira.

"Yes. Your son is a Jedi-though something of an… unconventional… one," responded Ahsoka.

"In what way?"

"He bends the Jedi Code, especially the rule about attachments."

"So the Jedi have rules about attachments?"

"Yes. The rule is 'Don't,' but, with the Empire, the Code has rather lost its importance."

"So, Ezra isn't the only one who bends it?"

"No. So do Kanan and I."

Sabine's eyes widened underneath her helmet. So far, every Jedi she knew had violated the Jedi Code.

"How do you three bend it?" asked Ephriam.

"Ah… attachments," Ahsoka answered, uncertain of how to phrase it.

Sabine's cheeks heated up. All of a sudden, she was quite glad she was wearing her helmet. If she hadn't had it, all of the people in the room would see the redness on her cheeks, the fire in her eyes, her mouth slightly open. Finally, Sabine decided to add her own input to the conversation.

"I've heard Ezra describe you as a 'grey Jedi' Ahsoka. What does that mean?" Sabine put in. The question had been nagging at her for quite a while, but she had never found the time to ask Ezra or Kanan.

"A Grey Jedi is like a Jedi and a Sith combined. We use both sides of the Force, the Light and the Dark," Ahsoka explained. "Actually," the Togruta added as an afterthought, "Ezra is a Grey Jedi himself."

"What about Kanan?" Sabine said as a follow-up question.

"No. He just bends the Jedi Code."

"Is there a Grey Jedi Code?" The question was a joke, but apparently, there was a code for Grey Jedi.

"There is no Light without the Dark. Through Passion, I gain Focus. Through Knowledge, I gain Power. Through Serenity, I gain Strength. Through Victory, I gain Harmony. There is only the Force." Ahsoka's answer was spoken at lightspeed.

"Wait, so being a Grey Jedi is a bad thing?" Ephraim asked, but Ahsoka made a negative gesture.

"It's not good, but it's not bad. It's the middle road. It also allows for Jedi to be more free than they would be by choosing a side of the Force."

Relief crossed Mira and Ephraim's features. Sabine didn't blame them. A Sith kid? She had only crossed paths with the Inquisitors a few times, and they already terrified her. Who would want them as children?

Plus, she didn't want Ezra to be like them at all. Sabine couldn't bear to imagine Ezra as a Sith. His generosity was one of the things that Sabine loved about him. When he had nearly fallen to the dark side, Sabine had been nothing short of terrified. She didn't want to lose him! But, alas, she couldn't control him. All she could do was be there for him as a confidant. Someone who would listen to him.

Sabine moved away from the group. The Bridgers were firing questions at Ahsoka, and most of them Sabine couldn't answer. Instead, she walked to Ezra's room, as she had seen Ezra walk in there a few minutes earlier. She entered to a scene where the young Jedi was sitting cross-legged on the ground. His back was towards the door, and Sabine had no doubt that his eyes were wide with wonder as he stared at little holo-images. Even though he had received the holocron almost two years ago, he still continued to learn new things from the holocron that Kanan had given him.

"So, what are you learning now?"

The holocron fell to the floor. Ezra, almost as if woken from a nap, said nothing but, "Hmm?"

"The holocron. What are you learning now?" Sabine repeated.

"Oh! Force Cloak. It's how to hide yourself from other Force Users," Ezra answered without much hesitation. Sabine's mouth twisted upwards into a smile.

"So you're learning it to hide from Kanan?" she said, grinning.

"Somewhat. Also, I'm trying to learn it to hide from Sith, like the Inquisitors," explained Ezra. Sabine saw logic in that. She would hide from them too.

"But it would help with any prank war. Especially against Kanan," Sabine said with a devilish grin.

"Ssh. He'll hear you," Ezra warned. Then, both of them burst out laughing.

As Ezra and Sabine recovered, Ezra's mom opened the door. Ezra's face lit up as he turned to see the new arrival.

"Hey, Mom!" he said louder than usual. It wasn't surprising by any means. He hadn't seen his parents since he was seven, so it was natural for him to kind of freak out over meeting his parents again.

"Ezra, is it really you?" Mira asked incredulously.

"Yes, Mom. It is me." Ezra said with a warm smile. Mira Bridger rushed to her lost son and hugged him tightly. Sabine stepped back, not wanting to intrude.

Finally, the two broke apart. Mira held Ezra at arms length, studying him. Finally, she left after some comments about his growth.

"Your parents are odd, aren't they?" Sabine commented.

"Oh, like yours aren't?" replied Ezra.

"Oh, so now it's my fault that you had to be a Mandalorian to recruit Clan Wren as troops for the Rebellion?"

"Hey, those tests were really, really hard!" A few months ago, Ezra and Sabine had traveled to Krownest with a select few warriors from the Rebellion to try and recruit some Mandalorian fighters. Fortunately, some other Clans had come willingly to the Rebel cause. Unfortunately, Clan Wren dictated that any recruiters had to be Mandalorian, for some reason that Sabine didn't remember. What she did remember, however, was just how hard those tests were on the Rebel group.

First, there was the "warm-up" style test. Basically, it was one giant survival test, where the Rebels had to keep themselves alive for twenty-four hours in the freezing cold wilderness of Krownest. All they were given was a single waterproof poncho. Amazingly, all of the Rebels had made it through the first test.

The second test was just endurance. A lap around the training room, followed by a hundred push-ups, then a hundred sit-ups, and then fifty pull-ups later, the cycle repeated itself. Then, after the Rebels had completed that (some of them called it 'The training from Hell') they had to swim laps in a gigantic pool. And it was all in Mandalorian armor, adding yet another challenge to an already arduous workout. Then, to add another part, Ezra had to do the entire workout one more time because he was one of the leaders of the group.

The result was that only Sabine was well-rested for the final test, and she wasn't even participating. She was already a Mandalorian, so she was spared from the workout. Everyone else in the Rebel party was exhausted, and Ezra had taken the worst of it. He could barely walk to the refresher, even though he held his head high and his pace was normal. But the Rebels who knew Ezra well could tell that it was fake bravado. After they retired to the set of rooms that they could use, Ezra basically died in his matress. Sabine, of course, only knew this because she and Ezra had been bunked together as the leaders of the party. She had a suspicion that her mother, Ursa Wren, made Ezra do more as kinda-not-really subtle revenge for taking a liking to her daughter. But, at the same time, the Mandalorians did think that the leaders should bear more weight than the common soldier.

All in all, it seemed like Sabine's mother had made Ezra do more both because he was a leader and he loved Sabine. But it still seemed like Ursa had made Ezra do much more out of spite because he was a Jedi.

The final test was easily the most brutal. The badly fatigued Rebels had to face Mandalorians in sparring matches, and the Mandalorians were fresh opponents. In fact, a few of the Rebels nearly quit because of that, until Fenn Rau's sense of fairness prevailed and the Rebels were allowed a days rest, and somehow managed to convince Ursa to pit the Rebels against newer Mandalorians, instead of battle-hardened veterans.

There was one thing that Countess Wren would not budge on, though. She was going to fight Ezra.

"You know," Sabine said, shaking both of them out of the memory, "I wasn't entirely sure you were going to make it."

"What, you don't believe in me, cyar'ika?" asked Ezra. He had no idea how much of an impact 'cyar'ika' would have on Sabine. In retrospect, he should have seen it coming, as the word meant "soulmate," or "darling," but Sabine's reaction was still very impressive for a single word.

Instantly, her voice dropped to barely above a whisper. Her words slowed to a stutter. "C-cyar'ika?" she stammered. Her eyes were wide.


	3. Chapter 3: Words of Affection

_**Sorry for the short chapter, but I was having a tough time elaborating. Anyways, please enjoy this chapter. Reviews are appreciated and welcomed.**_

* * *

"Yes." Ezra's loving smile returned as he looked deep into Sabine's eyes. "You are my cyar'ika." Not only was the word used correctly, but it was pronounced perfectly. Sabine had no idea that he knew Mando'a.

In fact, Ezra had taught himself in secret, with help from Tristan and Altrich, to make it his big surprise for Sabine. Both Tristan and Altrich liked Ezra, a fact that had helped Ezra quite a bit. He was also determined as kriff to get it right for his cyar'ika. And to top it all off, no one else in the crew spoke Mando'a except for Ezra and Sabine. As long as they controlled their tone of voice, no one would know what they said to each other, whether it was a plan for a mission, a prank, or anything in between.

"Ezra… ni kar'tayl gar darasuum, babe…" (I love you, babe…) Sabine whispered, coming up with her own pet name for Ezra, choosing it as a small joke.

"Ni kar'tayl gar darasuum, cyar'ika," (I love you, darling,) Ezra whispered back. He pressed his lips to hers lightly. Sabine put one hand behind Ezra's head, pulling his head closer to her own as she returned the kiss. Bliss took over the minds of both of the Rebels, an ardor rose to match it. Sabine's eyes closed in supplication. Ezra's stayed open, but barely. Both of Ezra's hands were on Sabine's waist.

Sabine's thoughts went something like, How is Ezra so good at this? The way he held her, both with the kiss and his arms, felt like it was smoothly practiced. There was no way that this was his first time. Was it?

Ezra's thoughts were much the same. He had no idea how much lust, how much zeal he had sent coursing through Sabine's veins. He had never kissed anyone before, so this was very new to him. He had seen people do it on the street, but that was it. He didn't know how many desirable feelings were sent flowing through his blood, most of them somehow related to passion. He didn't care if he was doing horribly. His mind was to overwhelmed by Sabine's apparent knack. The softness of her lips, the way she had her hands placed possessively on the back of his skull.

A few moments later, they broke apart and just held each others hands, serene in the moment. Maybe some other complications would arise, or maybe they wouldn't. Maybe they would tell the crew, maybe they would get found out before that happened. Neither Ezra or Sabine knew that Hera was playing matchmaker with them from the very start.

But, for now, everything was quiet. Everything was just as it should be. Ezra's parents were safe. Ahsoka was alive. Nobody was hurt. Sabine and Ezra had finally realized the feeling they harbored for each other. Nobody else in the crew knew about the relationship.

Everything was perfect.


	4. Chapter 4: Not-so-Small Surprise

Only a few minutes later, the _Ghost_ appeared at Yavin Four. Sabine was sitting in her gunner's seat, watching the eye candy of hyperspace fade away to…. An explosion?

"Is anyone else seeing this?" Sabine asked into the comm. What was going on?

"Yeah, I see it." Ezra's response was the first to come back over the comm. Following him was Hera and Kanan. Kanan was still confused, but Hera seemed to like the explosion, like it was an Imperial Battle Station.

"That was the Death Star. Imperial Battle Station, big enough to destroy planets," explained Hera. _Well, at least that explains Hera's attitude,_ thought Sabine.

"Shall we take a closer look?" asked Kanan. The crew consensus was that they should probably get to Yavin Base before they started combing the wreckage.

"Well, that's what I meant," Kanan laughed. The _Ghost_ started to fly towards Yavin Four, and joyous laughter was all that came over the comm when the Spectres asked for landing clearance. Eventually, they were cleared for descent to the surface, where they were immediately told to report to the "Great Hall" on the top of the Massassi Temple.

"Woah."

None of the Spectres had ever been inside the Great Hall. It was only used for celebrations, and none had occurred while the crew of the _Ghost_ was still on base. But now, it was packed full of Rebels. The Spectres stood somewhat near the raised part of the room. On the raised platform was most of the Generals, as well as Mon Mothma and Princess Leia.

Finally, after a few tense minutes that felt like an eternity, the doors opened. Luke Skywalker walked down the aisle with some guy apparently called 'Han Solo,' followed by a Wookiee called Chewbacca. Sabine and Ezra smiled at the sight of the Wookiee being there. Normally, a simple copilot wouldn't be included in a ceremony.

As the two reached the small overlook and ascended the stairs, Kanan seemed to realize something. His eyes, unmasked, widened ever so slightly.

"Kanan, love, is something wrong?" Hera asked, slightly worried. Not much could provoke such a reaction from him.

"No. Just was surprised that the person who destroyed the Death Star was who I thought it was," answered Kanan.

The ceremony wrapped up quick. Princess Leia gave the two Rebels a medal each. After that, everybody left fairly quickly. As the Spectres left, everybody just split up and went separate ways. Hera and Kanan walked down to the _Ghost_ , where Hera said that they had to fix something in the cabin. She didn't give any specifics. Zeb went to find Kallus, leaving Ezra and Sabine to find something to do. They didn't really have any important tasks to do, aside from some menial tasks onboard the _Nightbrother._ They did have to name it, though, so Ezra walked down to the hangar with Sabine to try and think of a name.

Sabine, on the other hand, had other ideas.

"Wait, you kept the same paint job?" the young Mandalorian asked incredulously as she saw the red-and-black fighter sitting on the tarmac.

"Actually, I was thinking of letting you paint it, cyar'ika," Ezra responded. He had been thinking of a way to tell Sabine that his ship hadn't been painted and invite her to paint it. Her opening herself up to it made it so much easier.

Sabine crossed her arms, half glaring at Ezra. "And you were going to tell me this when, exactly?"

"As soon as I thought of a way to do it," Ezra grinned cheekily.

"So you weren't going to?"

"No, I was!" Ezra's cheeks heated up with embarrassment. Sabine, seeing the look on his face, burst out laughing. Ezra just stood there, confusion on his face.

"I'm sorry, Ezra," Sabine chuckled out as she stopped laughing slowly. "But your face was hilarious."

"Well, thanks…. So, shall we paint?" Ezra asked hopefully.

"Sure," Sabine smirked. She had an idea of how to paint the fighter, and she felt like Ezra would do well.

Ezra opened the ramp that led into the _Nightbrother_ , although both Sabine and Ezra agreed that they needed to change the name. Something more uplifting, more inspiring.

"So, what do you think we should name this ship?" Sabine asked idly, walking through the opening in the ships hull.

"I was thinking about that. Taka, maybe?" Ezra answered, leading Sabine into the multi-purpose area of the ship.

"No, not Taka. Something with more meaning," Sabine countered.

Ezra nodded consent and opened a storage locker. Inside was his second surprise for Sabine: paint. All the paint she needed to repaint the _Nightbrother,_ in every color under the rainbow.

"Oh my god, Ezra!" Sabine exclaimed as she saw the rows and rows of paint. "How much did this cost?"

"Actually, it didn't cost _us_ anything," Ezra said smiling. "I am a Lieutenant Commander, am I not? The maintenance crew was more than happy to help."

"Well, let's use the paint," Sabine said. She also wore a wide smile.

"After you, my lady," Ezra chuckled. Sabine punched him in the arm lightly.

"Oh, shut up, Ezra."

They both took some spray cans and walked to the ladder. As Sabine climbed, Ezra Force jumped to the top.

"That's cheating," Sabine pouted. Ezra took one look at her and decided to play a small joke on her.

Reaching out to the Force, he lightly pushed Sabine, making her stumble. As Sabine stumbled, her foot struck the side of the _Kom'rk_ -class, making her fall down. Before she could hit the ground, Ezra used the Force to slow her fall.

"Hey!" Sabine shouted up to Ezra. But Ezra wasn't done yet. Reaching out to the Force yet again, the young Jedi lifted the twenty-one-year-old Mandalorian off the ground. Then, he floated her back onto the _Nightbrother_ , smirking.

"Well, now you've Force Jumped onto the ship. Happy?" Ezra asked, trying desperately to not break down into laughter.

"Lets just paint the fighter, Bridger," Sabine said, with mock anger. After some time had passed, the two rebels began to paint, absently talking about the other rebels.

"Yeah, Wedge is a good pilot. And a good friend. But honestly, his cockiness is what gets me," Sabine put in after a lengthy discussion about the other rebel pilots.

"Oh, please, you should see him when he and some other pilots are together. Honestly, they're always laughing and talking and won't shut up. What is it they find so kriffing funny?" Ezra said. He agreed that Wedge was cocky completely. But it was when he was with other pilots that was the most annoying for Ezra.

"I'm not a pilot, Ezra. Why don't you go ask Hera? I think she's on the _Ghost_ with Kanan," Sabine suggested, trying - and failing - to mask her mischievous intentions.

"Don't want to interrupt them," Ezra responded without even looking at Sabine. "You know how they are when they're… alone."

"Yes, I do know. Too well, in fact," Sabine muttered, thinking back to the times where she had walked in on Hera and Kanan being more than friends. Especially one time when she and Ezra had wanted to ask Hera about the next mission they were going on, and Hera had been preoccupied. The worst part, though, was that Hera and Kanan had _no idea_ that they had been found out.

"Remember that one time when we walked in on them?" asked Ezra.

"I try not to," Sabine groaned.

"Don't we all."

Sabine sighed and continued spraying neon blue paint onto the wingtip of the fighter. Ezra looked over at her as she walked down the wing to the space near the engines, where she painted an amber starbird onto the metal. Ezra caught his breath.

 _It was beautiful._

"Sabine, that's…." Ezra stammered. His _cyar'ika_ was truly amazing. "It's beautiful…"

"Glad you like it," Sabine said, winking. Then, she casually carried on, in Mando'a, "Meg vaabir gar mirdir be Zeb?" (What do you think of Zeb?) She decided that it would be safer to speak in Mando'a, as Zeb was likely to bash them if they said anything negative.

Ezra grinned. "Kaysh's surly bal argumentative most be te ca'nara, a kaysh liser cuyir nice," (He's surly and argumentative most of the time, but he can be nice) the Jedi said. It was a fairly accurate description.

"Hera?"

"She's motherly, but honestly, it's really nice. She'll always hold a special place for me. She… accepted me," Ezra answered.

"Yeah, same for me. She was like my mom that I never had," Sabine agreed.

"But you have a family," Ezra stated, confused.

"Not when I ran away from them. They actually cast me out," Sabine explained. "I… don't like to talk about it…"

"Hey, I won't pry, _cyar'ika_."

"Good. Don't. You won't like the consequences," Sabine threatened jokingly.

"Of course."

They continued to paint, talking about various things they liked about the Rebellion. Eventually, they stepped back to look at the finished fighter.

"How did we do this?"

"I have no idea."

The fighter looked radiant. Lines of blue ran down both sides of the wings, leading to the engines, where Sabine had painted amber-orange starbirds just before the engines. The middle of the ship had blue on the sides of the cockpit, and orange flowed back towards the end of the main area of the ship. The rest of the ship was a bright silver.

Hera walked in on the rebels as they admired the ship that they had just repainted. Looking at the two, staring admiringly, she had no doubt they did it together. The amount of time they shared had shot up ever since about a month ago. Maybe something had happened.

"Wow," she said to them as she walked up beside them. Ezra was the first to react.

"Hey, Hera," he said easily enough. It didn't seem like anything was going on.

"Nice ship," Hera said next. "Did you just repaint it?"

"Yeah, with Sabine's help," Ezra answered, with a small jerk of his thumb to Sabine, standing next to him, hands by her side.

"You might be using that soon. We're going back to Lothal," Hera said with a small smile.

"Why?"

"Looks like while we were away, it fell back under the Empire's hand. Now you get to help free it, along with your parents," Hera answered. "They're training for the operation right now, actually. Shooting skills."

"What are we doing on Lothal?" Sabine wondered aloud.

"The basics. Raiding, hit-and-run attacks, the usual. And once we do enough damage, we attack the main government building. Just like last time," Hera explained with a nolgastic smile.

"Because it went so well the last time we did that," Sabine added, and they all laughed. The last time they attacked the government building, it had gone horribly wrong…


	5. Chapter 5: Bad Memories

_**If you can figure out where I got the inspiration for this scene from, leave it in the reviews. I'll tell you from where in the next chapter. Second thing: Yes, the T-2B is an actual Rebel Tank. It was made for the game Star Wars: Empire at War, and it's DLC Forces of Corruption. I have no idea if the Rebels had T-2Bs at this point, but in the game they do, so if I'm wrong, oh well.**_

 _ **Reviews are appreciated. -RebelliousWaffle**_

* * *

 _Two months before…_

Ezra flashed his laser pointer at Kanan and the Rebel team across the street. Sabine, Zeb, and some Rebel Commandos stood near him, waiting for a laser to flash back. After a few seconds, a red pointer came in response. Ezra turned and nodded to the small team. They were to open fire after Kanan's team used it's T-2B tank to open fire on the stormtroopers in the square.

The T-2B Light Attack Tank floated into position under a small archway. It was rather surprising that nobody, save for the Rebels, noticed it. Then - _Kchew! Kchew! Kchew!_

The T-2B tanks light cannons spat crimson lasers. The stormtroopers, taken off guard, scrambled around as many of their number dropped to the ground, some groaning in pain, others screaming, and those remaining ominously silent. The few that were still fighting had little time to regret not being hit by the barrage of blaster bolts as they crouched behind some small barriers, trying desperately to not be hit by the many laser bolts that flew by their heads and sizzled into the duracrete that they hid behind.

Ezra led his team out from its hiding place behind some bushes. As a Jedi, it had been decided that he would lead the second squad. The stormtroopers, blindly firing over the top of the barriers, were caught off-guard by the Rebel strike team behind them. They surrendered almost immediately.

The short skirmish had unfortunately attracted the attention of a nearby AT-DP, which began to walk over to the scene of the brief battle. The laser cannon mounted on the bottom began to fire on the scene almost immediately. Rebels scrambled for cover as Sabine began to try and slice the security door on the governor's palace, which also functioned as the headquarters for all Imperial activity on Lothal. Her concentration, however, was interrupted as a blast from the AT-DPs chin-mounted cannon flew into the door. The durasteel held, but Sabine was blown backwards and knocked out.

Nearby, a Imperial Anti-Tank team launched a rocket at the T-2B tank, blowing it into scrap. A second blast from the AT-DP killed two Rebels and knocked out a third. Kanan, next to Sabine, checked her pulse and breathed a sigh of relief. She was alive but unconscious. A third blast knocked Ezra into unconsciousness. This was the point where Kanan decided that enough was enough. Dashing to the AT-DP, he sliced a leg off. Then, he called the _Ghost_ for pickup. The few remaining Rebels watched with grim satisfaction as the walker wobbled and fell to the ground, destroying it's fighting chance. The crew inside were dead.

The _Ghost_ flew into the plaza, opening its ramp. The remaining soldiers dragged the dead and wounded into the ship, with grim looks. As TIE fighters closed in, the ramp closed and the VCX-100 took off with fighters in hot pursuit. The freighter shook violently, tribute to one of the enemy pilots scoring a hit. Shields held, but they needed covering fire. Two commandos moved to the ventral and dorsal turrets, and Kanan ran to the nose turret. As the _Ghost_ fired plasma in every direction, the hyperdrive engaged swiftly, and the _Ghost_ escaped into hyperspace.

* * *

 _Back in the present…_

"I hope the attack goes better than last time," Ezra said hopefully. Hera nodded. Sabine, who had been unconscious for most of the fight, looked at the twi'lek pilot and the human Jedi quizzically.

"That won't be hard to do, Ezra," Hera responded.

"No, I mean, as in we actually succeed," Ezra laughed.

"Oh, that might be a little more difficult…"

Hera handed Ezra a holodisk, saying that it was the mission briefing. With a few parting words, Hera left, but not before telling Ezra and Sabine to watch it together. They were both going on the mission, so it made sense.

"Well, shall we watch it?" Sabine asked. Ezra nodded and walked to the holoterminal, placing the disk in, and sitting down on one of the four chairs there.

Blue light took the form of Hera and Kanan standing together. Sabine sat down next to Ezra as the two holographic figures spoke in unison.

"We know how you two feel."


	6. Chapter 6: Discovered

_**To answer the question I posed earlier: Episode 1. The assault on the palace.**_

* * *

"What?" Sabine exclaimed as she and Ezra stared at the hologram, dumbfounded. Ezra shot a small glance at Sabine. The Mandalorian warriors eyes were wide, and her mouth was slightly ajar.

"I don't know, cyar'ika," Ezra said. His own mind was racing, trying to figure out what was happening.

"You both like each other, just admit it!" Kanan almost shouted from the hologram.

"As in, right now, you two," Hera added. Then, the hologram fizzled out. A couple seconds passed, with total silence permeating the room.

Eventually, Sabine spoke.

"Some mission briefing," she joked. Both rebels cracked up. Ezra actually fell of the chair. After almost a minute, the two rebels sat back on the chairs, still laughing. Sabine wiped a tear from her eye. It wasn't so much her own joke, but Ezra's laugh made her laugh, and vice versa.

"Well, I guess our mission is outlined for us," Ezra said, after the two rebels stopped laughing, a good thirty seconds later.

"Shall we complete it?" Sabine asked seductively. Ezra nodded lustfully.

"Always be a good soldier, Sabine," the Jedi teased.

"Yes, Commander," Sabine teased back.

They locked lips, but broke apart a few seconds later.

"I don't think we're done yet, babe," Sabine said in a flirtatious tone.

They met lips again, tongues clamoring for space. Anticipation took up residence in both of the rebel's brains, but neither one made any moves.

Finally, Ezra dragged a willing Sabine to the bunks.

* * *

 _Almost a day later..._

"Hey, have you seen Sabine or Ezra?" Kanan asked as he walked towards Hera onboard the Ghost. Hera shook her head.

"No, I gave them the holodisk we prepped for them. They're probably racking their brains onboard the Gauntlet, trying to figure out how to admit that they like each other to the base," Hera answered, suppressing a grin.

"To be fair, we never said that they had to admit it to the base. Only to each other. But how would it take them a day?" queried Kanan.

"I don't know. Maybe they decided to split and think about it today," Hera suggested.

Chopper, overhearing the conversation, rolled up to the two speakers and beeped, "They already did."

Hera's eyebrows rocketed upwards from their normal position. Kanan looked at the little droid quizzically.

"What did you just say, Chopper?" Kanan asked.

"I said, Ezra and Sabine already admitted their feelings," Chopper repeated, with the equivalent of an eyeroll. If a droid could be said to beep sarcastically, Chopper did.

"To each other?" Hera questioned.

"Who else would they admit to?" Chopper asked in return.

"He raises a valid point," Kanan said, grinning widely.

"Well, shall we find out if they actually admitted?" Hera asked, but Chopper waved them inside with a mechanical arm. Once they were inside the Ghost, Chopper beeped out, "Here's proof. This was taken a month ago, just after one of the supply runs we did to Tarkintown on Lothal."

The little droids holoprojector lit up a brilliant blue. The hologram that came out showed Ezra and Sabine in Ezra and Zeb's room aboard the Ghost.

"-ry, could you repeat that?" Ezra was asking.

"I… I think I have feelings for you, Ezra."

Then, the couple - for now Hera and Kanan knew they were a couple - kissed, then kissed again, deeper that time. Then, the hologram shut off.

Kanan and Hera were speechless for a long time. Hera had no idea that the two were already boyfriend and girlfriend. Kanan was wondering how he hadn't found this out through the Force. Normally, the Force would tell him if they had any relationship above just friends.

Eventually, Hera spoke, saying, "Kanan, love, did you sense them at all?"

Kanan shook his head. The Force had led him to believe that Ezra had gotten over his crush on Sabine. Obviously, he was wrong.

"No. In fact, right now I'm not sensing them being anything other than friends."

"Shall we find out?" Hera asked. As Kanan nodded, the Jedi and the Twi'lek walked out of the Ghost to the Gauntlet.


	7. Chapter 7: Reveal Act

_**Reviews are appreciated. -RebelliousWaffle**_

* * *

Ezra awoke groggily from a small slumber, his eyes not quite ready to accept waking. Next to him lay a Mandalorian girl. He quickly searched his name for the memory. _Sabine_. That was it. Her head lay in the small nook between his shoulder and head. His own head was lying next to hers, curved slightly around the top of Sabine's.

One of Sabine's legs was tossed languidly across Ezra's bare chest. Her body itself was half-curled up, the idea fairly well ruined by the fact that her arm was draped across Ezra's chest. Ezra's own arm was placed possessively across her waist.

Sabine stirred slightly as Ezra tried to extricate himself from her embrace. Despite his yearning to stay with her forever, nobody else knew about their relationship. They wanted to keep it that way. So, they had to seem like they were doing other things, even if they weren't.

Ezra tried to escape again, but once more, Sabine stirred as he tried to sit up. _A awkward problem,_ Ezra thought. _Let's see how you get out of this one, Jedi._

Before his escape attempt came to fruition, though, Sabine woke drowsily. Her eyes, as she slowly sat up, were still half closed. She murmured a dim, "Hello, babe," to Ezra.

"Hey, _cyar'ika_ ," Ezra responded. He sat up, now freed from Sabine's embrace. Swinging his legs over the side of the bunk where they were lying, he sat up and clothed himself. Then, he walked out of the room, leaving Sabine to change as well.

Only a minute later, Sabine and Ezra stood at the ramp of the Gauntlet, trying to think of a name for it.

"How about Starhawk?" Sabine suggested.

"That's the best one so far. Let's do it," Ezra agreed.

As Sabine moved to the comm room to rewrite the transponder codes, thereby rechristening the ship _Starhawk_ , Hera and Kanan walked to the fighter. They stopped at the bottom of the ramp. Hera's arms were crossed.

"Hey, Sabine," Ezra called, "Hera and Kanan are here."

Sabine strode out of the comm room seconds later.

"So what do you two want?" Ezra questioned.

"Proof that you two followed the mission I gave you," Hera demanded. "We already saw a recording of the two of you kissing." Sabine laughed.

"Is that not proof that we are each other's cyar'ika?" Ezra asked.

"What does cyar'ika mean?" asked Kanan, more than a little mystified. Ezra smirked, congratulating himself for turning the conversation around.

"Not telling. Anyways, vaabir gar t'ad kar'taylir darasuum solus pther?" (Do you two love each other?)

"Uhm… Yes?" Hera answered, confused. Both Sabine and Ezra smiled. Kanan, however, was delving deep into the Force. When he reached the level he wanted, he looked at Sabine and Ezra. What he saw was a roaring inferno of love, shining brighter than him and Hera combined. Others were barely a candle.

While Kanan was recovering from his shock, Hera tossed a data drive to the Jedi-Mandalorian couple standing at the top. Sabine caught it.

"Here's the actual mission briefing," Hera called.

"Yeah, sure it is," Ezra called sarcastically. Hera shook her head rapidly.

"No, actually it is." Hera's voice was dead serious. "In fact, were going to be watching it on the way to Lothal. Take the _Nightbrother_ instead of the _Ghost_."

"I'm going with Ezra," Sabine said, a tad impulsively.

"We won't stop you," Kanan uttered. He wasn't surprised with Sabine's demand. Then, curiosity took over and he asked, "Why did you keep the ships name as _Nightbrother_?"

"No. We renamed it _Starhawk_ ," Sabine said. "Before you started demanding things, I was reprogramming the transponders."

"Much better than _Nightbrother,_ don't you think?" Ezra asked. Hera and Kanan nodded in unusion. Then they turned to leave in unusion.

"Ganar gar vurel noticed pehea Hera bal Kanan ratiin vaabir kebise tome?" (Have you ever noticed how Hera and Kanan always do things together?) Sabine asked quietly, in Mando'a.

"Elek." (Yes.)

"What are you two talking about?" Hera asked as she turned to leave.

"Nothing," Ezra replied quickly. A little bit too quickly. Hera made a mental note to interrogate him about that later. Moments later, Mon Mothma strode into the hangar.

"I see you painted your ship," the now-Chancellor stated. Her hands clenched around a small data-disk. Again, Ezra and Sabine nodded. "Have you received your orders for the operation on Lothal?"

"Yes."

"Well, you two are being reassigned into a new unit. Sabine, Ezra, Kes Dameron and Shara Bey are going to be forming a new unit. Ezra, your parents will be in this unit too. Tell the name of your unit to me soon. Until then, you will be known simply as 'Special Forces Unit 3.'" Mothma then handed the datadisk she had been carrying to Ezra. "These are your immediate orders. You will be joining SpecForce _Ghost_ for Operation: Burning Field. Until then, follow these orders."

"What are the orders?" Sabine asked, clearly intrigued.

"Probably just some attacks we need to carry out, _cyar'ika_ ," Ezra answered. Mon Mothma's interest hit a high point. She resolved to ask them after they finished the first set of orders they had.

"Indeed. First, we need you to go to the world of Toprawa and destroy an Imperial research facility. If you can salvage data, great. If you can't, don't spend too long trying. Other than that, there might be more important missions I haven't been notified of, so make sure your schedule is flexible. The destruction of the Death Star has marked a turning point in the Rebellion. We are going on the offensive," ordered Mothma. Both Sabine and Ezra nodded again, and Sabine added a simple yes, ma'am. Mothma walked off, her back tall.

"Well, shall we find our new squad?" Ezra asked. Sabine, wondering who they would be, nodded her assent. She was burning with curiosity to find out who some of the new members were. She had seen Kes around the base, but she hadn't heard of anyone named 'Shara Bey.' Who was that?

The two rebels decided to split up to find Kes and Shara. As they walked off, both of them felt uneasy now that they weren't side by side.


	8. Chapter 8: New Teams

_**Three things to address before the chapter can begin in earnest.**_

 _ **Thing One: Updates to this story will be coming slower, due to another fanfic I am working on. By no means will I forget this fanfic, I have spent too much time on it to simply forget it. That would be a waste of my time.**_

 _ **Thing Two: Thank you for over 2,000 views! I never thought that many people would read my story. 700+ people have read my writing. That just blows my mind. Thank you for your support, as well.**_

 _ **Thing Three: Yes, I know.**_ **Quasar Fire** _ **-class ships were used by the rebels, not Imperials. I don't care. Many rebel ships were stolen Imperial ships, so it makes sense that the Empire would use them as carriers as well. I could rant for hours about this, but now I will shut up and let you enjoy the story.**_

 _ **Reviews are appreciated. -RebelliousWaffle**_

* * *

Hera sat back onto her chair in the cockpit of the _Ghost_ , utter horror on her features at Kanan's terrible news. Kanan's own face was sympathetic, but resigned, as he couldn't do anything about it. Hera, however, could.

The crew of the _Ghost_ was being split in half. Sabine and Ezra were now part of the Kanta Team, named after some obscure animal on one of the group's homeworlds. Why did Rebel Command do this? They were far more capable together. If Hera couldn't get the crew back together, she was going to push for High Command to at least assign them on missions together. The shock of the crew gave rise to anger, but Hera calmed herself, even though it was with some difficulty.

"They're seriously tearing the crew apart?" Hera asked incredulously.

"They took the vote while we were off site. Apparently, they think Ezra and Sabine are going to be just as good without us."

"I swear, if High Command thinks.." Hera started, but Kanan cut her off.

"There is good news. They didn't completely tear us apart. Mostly, this was to make the squads more manageable. So, most of the missions they take on, we take on," Kanan added. This wasn't all bad. "Also, they're adding a few people to our team. Specifically, Kallus and AP-5."

"Why AP-5?"

"I don't know. Maybe as a extra helper for Chopper?"

Hera relaxed a little at the news. Her body still radiated anger, but now it wasn't just total outrage.

"Well, at least we don't have to deal with Ezra and Sabine's love life on board. Who's in their squad?" Hera asked.

"Ezra's parents, and two others named Kes Dameron and Shara Bey. Looks like there will be quite a lot of love dynamics in there. They're going to be based in the _Starhawk_ ," Kanan explained.

"I almost feel bad for Kes and Shara. They have to deal with the kids and Ezra's parents."

"What, you didn't hear?"

"About what?"

Kanan sighed and said, "Kes and Shara are married, Hera."

Hera's eyes widened at how perfect the team setup was. Three couples in one squad, two of them married? Now _that_ was something. Then, she thought of something even funnier.

"So, two married couples in one squad. And one that isn't married."

Kanan began to grin as he understood Hera's thinking. "So Ezra and Sabine are going to be the only ones not married and still in a relationship. This will be… interesting."

"I'm not going to comment. What about you?"

"I might."

* * *

Meanwhile...

"So you're Ezra. Nice to meet you," Kes Dameron said. He was a tall man, with tanned skin and close cut black hair. His eyes were a very nice shade of brown, looking somewhat like chocolate. Next to him stood a vaguely Arabic-looking woman with tan skin and frizzy hair, kept together with a ponytail. She also had brown eyes. Her body was curved and she seemed quite thin, in a large contrast to Kes, who was stocky and had the look of a soldier about him. Her name was Shara Bey, Kes's husband.

"Nice to meet you too, Kes, Shara," Ezra responded. He shook hands with both of the Rebels just before he told them about the assignment.

"So were going to be fighting with you?" Shara asked.

"Yeah, that's kinda what _in the same squad_ means, Shara," Ezra joked. Kes and Shara chuckled at the jest.

"So, we meet in the _Starhawk_ in a day?" Ezra asked. Shara both Kes and Shara nodded. The time was acceptable.

"Alright. Do you guys want to meet Sabine now or…" Ezra asked.

"I think we'll wait until the entire squad is together," Shara said, making the decision for Kes, who simply nodded. _Letting Shara get her way,_ Ezra thought. _Smart guy._

He strode out of the room to find Sabine standing a few meters away. Her face was somewhere between loving and longing.

"So you didn't find them?" she asked, getting straight into business.

"I did. I've been searching for you," Ezra responded.

"Alright. Your parents are at the shooting range again. Apparently, your dad is a naturally good shot, and your mom is, by now, reasonably adept. Neither of them can hold a candle to me-"

"Not much can, _cyar'ika_ ," Ezra interrupted. Sabine smiled at the comment.

"Thanks, babe. But your parents are getting to be pretty good shots."

The Mando-Jedi couple walked into the mess hall, as it was lunchtime. In the serving line stood around twenty rebels. Apparently, they had gotten there before the main rush, where there would be well over a hundred rebels in the line.

"So, Ezra, what are you going to have?" Sabine asked out of curiosity.

"I don't know. Correllian nerf-steak, maybe?" Ezra said indecisively.

"What about a blue-cheese burger?" Sabine suggested. "It's what I'm having."

"Actually, I think I'm gonna have that too," Ezra agreed. The two rebels, after a small wait, got to the front of the line. They grabbed two plates, two cups of caf, and walked over to a table in the far corner of the room. Sabine sat with Ezra next to her slim form. They talked in low voices for a short while. The burgers tasted delectable. Then, Kanan and Hera joined them, sliding in across from the two.

"So, how are you two doing?" Kanan asked, not wanting to pass up his opportunity.

"Jate," (Good) Ezra said casually. Sabine nodded.

"Wha…" Hera muttered.

"Vaabir gar kar'taylir meg vi're saying?" Sabine questioned with a completely straight face. She was obviously not laughing. Too obviously.

"Uhh…" Kanan stuttered. Whatever language the two rebels sitting across from him were speaking, he didn't know it.

"Could you speak Basic, please?" Hera requested.

"Elek," Sabine answered. Then, in response to Hera's glare and a small look from Ezra, both she and Ezra cracked up. Hera and Kanan, looking indignant, waited patiently for the two young rebels (although _young_ might be stretching it: Ezra was nineteen, and Sabine twenty-one,) to stop their laughter.

"Sorry," Ezra eventually managed to say. Sabine said nothing.

"So, what language are you speaking?" Hera asked, eager to capitalize on the opportunity.

"Not telling," Sabine said curtly. She and Ezra had no intentions of revealing that both of them knew Mando'a.

"Well, fine," Hera fake pouted, crossing her arms. "Then I won't tell you what your next mission is."

"We already know," Ezra smirked. "It's a data grab."

"Well, fine. Do you know what planet?" Kanan asked next. Sabine answered this time.

"Thyferra," she said, no hint of hesitation in her voice.

"And you know your team, correct?"

"Yup."

Kanan groaned. "Now we can't hold the info over your heads," he mumbled, not quite low enough. Everyone at the table heard it.

"I wonder where Zeb and Kallus are?" Hera wondered aloud.

"Kallus is probably training, and Zeb is probably sleeping," Sabine answered. Truth to be told, that wasn't entirely unlikely. In fact, it was quite possible.

Just then, a Togruta with waist-length montrals walked over to the table where the four rebels sat. She sat a bit farther away from them, though. Kanan was the first to realize something was wrong.

Ahsoka was covered in emotions. Some happy, some normally thought of as more positive, and the rest were more negative. The most prominent feeling was conflict, however. Normally, Ahsoka would sit with somebody else, normally someone in the _Ghost_ 's crew. It was almost unheard of for her to sit alone nowadays.

Her head hung low. Ahsoka just generally looked down, like someone had shattered her morale, or asked a super-duper tricky question (as in, philosophical difficult) to her.

"Now there's an unusual sight," Kanan whispered to Ezra. Ezra looked in the direction that Kanan pointed.

"Sight?" Ezra prodded gently. Kanan turned to him.

"Oh, shut up," the older Jedi said, unable to come up with a witty reply. "At least I can see that's Ahsoka over there."

"Yeah, it is Ah…. oh my god."

"You feel it?"

"Yeah."

"Shall we try to find out why?"

"Sure."

The two Jedi moved to their forlorn comrade. Ahsoka's head was in her hands, an untouched piece of nerf-steak in front of her. She sighed, a pained sound.

"Hey, Ahsoka," Ezra said in a conversational tone. Ahsoka looked up. Her eyes had water in them. Either she had already cried, or she was on the verge of it.

"H-hey…" she stuttered.

"What's wrong?" Ezra asked.

"Nothing…" Ahsoka said.

"Really? Then why aren't you eating?" Ezra countered. "I'm here to help."

"It's nothing," Ahsoka said firmly.

"No, it's not. You can tell me, Ahsoka," Ezra repeated.

"It's… it's one of my friends. From the Jedi Order. She… she needs my help, but she fell to the dark side in the war… and I don't know if… if she was telling the truth, that she was drugged…" Ahsoka's answer was unsteady. Ezra cast a quick glance at Sabine and Hera. They were still talking, gesturing a lot.

"So you want to do a rescue mission," Ezra realized. Ahsoka nodded.

"She's on Gemena Six. I don't know anything else. We'd be going in blind," Ahsoka said hopelessly. Ezra grabbed her shoulder and shook her lightly.

"Ahsoka, that won't be anything new for us," Ezra half joked. But only half.

"So… you'll help me?" Ahsoka asked, with a ray of hope in her voice at last.

"Yes. As will Kanan, and Hera, and Sabine. Not sure about Zeb. Aren't you going to sit with us?" Ezra said next.

"Sure," Ahsoka said, somewhat non-committedly. Despite that, she stood, picked up her tray, and began to move with Ezra over to the small group that sat in the far right corner of the room if you looked at the room from the entrance.

"Hey, Ahsoka," Sabine said, looking up from the rather animated conversation with Hera, who greeted the Togruta Jedi as well.

"Well, guys, we have a mission," Ezra started. "Somewhat more important than a data grab on Thyferra."

"What is it?" Hera asked.

"Ahsoka has the details."

Ahsoka placed a small holocomm onto the table and keyed it. Blue light took the form of a slightly built woman, dressed in a small cloak with a hood. It was decorated with intricate patterns, looking a bit like a mosaic. Her face had small diamonds patterned across her nose and cheeks, with the first looking slightly larger than normal. Her eyes were ever so slightly turned upwards at the ends, with arched eyebrows. When she pushed back her hood, it revealed straight shoulder length, jet-black hair.

Kanan involuntarily sucked in a breath. He had seen this person before.

"This is Barriss Offee to Ahsoka Tano of the Rebel Alliance. I surrender." The hologram flickered out. Ahsoka continued her details for the mission.

"I managed to triangulate the coordinates. It's in a grassland on a planet called Gemena Six, near Thyferra," she said in a conversational tone.

"What's the problem?" Kanan asked. Why couldn't Ahsoka go in and save Barriss herself?

"Gemena Six is… contested," Ahsoka replied.

"As in…"

"As in, rebels have the planet. Imperials have the space around it. But, all of Gemena Six is loyal to the rebel cause, and they have about a million people living there. The Empire can't simply destroy the resistance with orbital bombardment. Instead, they have to go down onto the planet, because the entire planet is covered by a material that is nearly unbreakable. And if they do, they're going to lose hundreds of thousands of troops. So they've just blockaded the planet instead," Ahsoka half grumbled.

"Any information on the blockade fleet?" Hera asked, eager for a challenge.

"Aside from the fact that the capital ship is the _Chimaera_? No," Ahsoka replied a tad sourly.

"At least they're not _Tector_ s," Ezra put in. "Then they would have dedicated carriers." He was right: _Tector-_ class Star Destroyers had no ventral hangars, so they were mostly used for ship-to-ship combat. In a fleet, they would have dedicated carriers that launched far more TIEs than a normal _Imperial-_ class Star Destroyer. On the upside, the _Quasar Fire_ -class carrier was far easier to destroy than a _Imperial_ -class, so standard rebel procedure was "shoot the carrier" with a few hundred proton torpedos, or ion torpedoes, as that would disable the hangar shields, sending the Imperials into space.

"Well, I downloaded the comm call onto a disk for each of you," Ahsoka said, taking four disks out of her pocket and placing them on the table.

"Alright. I'll relay the info to Command. If I manage to get the mission, I'll comm you guys. Are we doing this old school?" Hera said.

"No, we'll take the new teams," Sabine answered. Her tone of voice let everyone know there was no disagreeing with her. Kanan and Ezra nodded, Ezra enthusiastically but Kanan more deliberately.

"Well, Hera, it's on you," Kanan said.

Hera responded with a tint of humor in her voice, " Indeed it is. But can it wait until after lunch?"


	9. Chapter 9: Blockade Runners

Chapter 9: Mission to Gemena Six

 _ **Yes, I know, the way that I described the**_ **Starhawk** _**dropping troops is completely wrong and not how it actually works in canon. I do know how the ship drops troops, but in order for that to work, the Rebels need jetpacks. Rebels… don't have jetpacks. So, I made it more like a paradrop, as the Rebels probably would modify the ship so it could drop troops like I described. If you want to shout at me through the reviews, go ahead. I don't care.**_

 _ **Reviews, as long as they are actually helpful, (which they usually are, thank you) are appreciated. -RebelliousWaffle**_

The _Ghost_ appeared just behind the _Starhawk_ in the space above Gemena Six. For a moment, both ships just floated in the vast vacuum before the _Ghost_ moved towards the blockade around the planet, the _Starhawk_ following close behind.

" _Starhawk_ to _Ghost_ , we have our guns powered and our troops ready. We are waiting on you for greenlight, over."

"Copy, _Starhawk._ We have our guns powered and are ready for the run, over," crackled over the comm in the _Starhawk_. Shara gripped the control yokes hard, so hard that her knuckles turned white.

"Don't break my ship," Ezra teased lightly. He knew full well the stress of keeping a crew alive, and he was trying to alleviate some of it. The attempt was doomed to failure.

"Yes, Commander." Shara's response was automatic, robotic.

"That was a joke."

Ezra climbed down the small ladder into the small drop area, where Sabine, Mira and Ephraim, and Kes sat, easy banter making silence nearly impossible. The young Jedi smiled to himself as he took a seat next to Sabine.

"And then the troopers come around the corner, and they say, 'Not here. He must have gone the other way.' Meanwhile, Shara and I are just leaning against a wall, talking, and they take no notice of us," Kes said, trying desperately not to break into laughter. "And then, to top it off, they walk _right past us_ \- and both of us have rebel patches - and they don't care."

"Kriff, that is funny," Sabine laughed. Ezra, not having heard the whole story, merely chuckled.

"Hey, people, were going to be running the blockade in about a minute, so you people best buckle up," he announced to the group. As he said that, a blast rocked the _Starhawk_ as something exploded nearby. Ezra hoped it wasn't the _Ghost_ that exploded.

Sabine had nearly fallen off of her seat when the _Starhawk_ had been rocked by the explosion. Now, she locked her restraint on and waited for other blast.

It never came.

* * *

"Star Destroyer _Chimaera_ , withdraw your fighters. We are a legitimate Imperial transport under act AA23 of Imperial law, and we are being escorted by a Mandalorian transport to Gemena Six," Hera demanded as the _Ghost_ spun in a tight little turn. The _Starhawk_ dove and fired at a TIE off of the top of the _Ghost_ , in one of the few blind spots of the VCX freighter.

"Gemena Six has been blockaded as a rebel hive. You have no authorization to be here," the comm sounded again.

"Yeah, well, stars be damned and let the crops die if I care," the comm said, this time from Shara in the _Starhawk_ as she dove on a TIE, blasting it into a molten slag heap floating through space.

"Well, _Starhawk_ , now we need to fly past nine Star Destroyers and hundreds of TIE fighters while they do their best to kill us," Hera said. "What was that about this mission being blue milk run?" the Twi'lek pilot then added sarcastically.

"Shut the kriff up, Hera," was the irritated response.

The _Ghost_ and _Starhawk_ rocketed forward, the _Ghost_ plowing ahead relentlessly and the _Starhawk_ bobbing and weaving.

"I've got two TIEs off my left," Hera reported.

"Make that one," Shara replied as she turned one into a crimson explosion.

"Of course."

The two rebel ships threaded a needle through the Imperial blockade, dodging turbolaser fire and TIEs like it was something out of a adventure book.

"Last Destroyer ahead. It's the _Chimaera_ ," Hera reported. The ISD was turning on it's side. Why? It didn't give it any better defensive or offensive capabilities.

"Carracks!" Shara screamed as the tubular, dull grey ships rocketed into the space formerly filled by the ISD. Almost immediately, the _Carrack_ -class ships began spraying flak into the air, punishing the _Ghost's_ shields The more nimble _Starhawk_ was only rocked by one or two explosions on the shields, dodging the vast majority of the blasts. As the _Ghost_ zipped past the Carracks, a lucky shot nailed an engine.

"Damnit, I've been hit!" Hera shouted. Both the _Starhawk_ and the _Ghost_ were now just barely inside the atmosphere. There was a small landing pad about a mile away, but if they crashed it wouldn't be much help to anyone.

Wind screamed past both craft as they neared the landing pad. Several white shuttles were arranged in a haphazard formation, and plasma was coming from all sides as the white-clad figures did battle with a hidden enemy, presumably the rebels. The _Ghost_ shot downwards towards the circle, smoke spewing from two of the engines, one on the top left, and the other in the middle of the cluster.

The _Ghost_ rammed an Imperial shuttle at full force as it dropped, destroying the much more frail craft very quickly. The boringly white shuttle careened into the rocks near the platform, destroying itself entirely, as if the two wings that had been sheared off when the _Ghost_ hit it wouldn't hinder its ability to fly enough. Then, the VCX-100 hit the center of the circle with a gutteral, horrible, spine-shaking screech.

The _Starhawk_ opened its bay doors as it rushed overhead, and everyone inside: Sabine, Ezra, Mira, Kes, and Ephraim - jumped off the lowered ramp onto the durasteel platform, Sabine using her jetpack to ease off and everyone else rolling to absorb the impact of the fall. Almost immediately, Kes was firing at stormtroopers, putting blast marks on their helmets with competent ease, almost contempt. Ezra's dad put a couple bolts into some troopers before dashing to a piece of cover. Mira, however, began to pull a pistol, slinging her rifle as she did so. Her pistol spat plasma with a peculiar whine, almost like a TIE engine, as it was a Defender pistol. The shots, for the most part, found their mark. Other trooper dropped.

Sabine put three stormtroopers down in three shots as Ezra drew his lightsaber, igniting it's emerald blade. He quickly deflected a shot back at a unlucky stormtrooper, who fell with a blackened patch on his chest.

The _Starhawk_ , still piloted by Shara, took care of the rest as it blasted the remaining troopers inside the transports. A _Titan_ -class dropship was then rocked and careened into the rocky surface of the planet, turning into what amounted to a pile of junk durasteel.

Ezra was the first to realize all the troopers were dead. He sheathed his lightsaber, hiding the deadly green glow.

"They're all dead," he shouted to the rest of the group. Nobody holstered their guns, however, an action born from multiple surprise attacks.

Slowly, a figure emerged from the shadows surrounding the platform. The lights must have been turned off or been shot. The figure had a grey cloak, with two lightsabers clipped to her hips, curved in their design. The cloak, slightly mottled with greys, blacks, and some dark greens, hung over her shoulders, clasped around her neck. Pushing it back, she revealed her identity.

"Welcome to Gemena Six," Barriss Offee said.

* * *

Ezra sat at a small table in _79_ , a higher-profile bar that was starting to edge over into an inn. Sabine sat on his left, and Barriss across from them. Hera and Kanan sat in between Sabine and Barriss. Miraculously, neither Kanan nor Hera had sustained any major injuries.

"Ahsoka!" Sabine called, seeing the Togruta walking to the table. Ahsoka sat down gingerly, having sustained a superficial-but-painful laceration.

"So, what's the verdict on the leg?" Hera asked. Ahsoka shrugged.

"Superficial," Ahsoka said. The entire group breathed a sigh of relief.

"Thank god. After all, what good is rescuing one Jedi if we lose another?" Ezra asked. The group laughed at the comment. It was raucous laughter, but the bar in general was as loud, so it was covered just fine.

"So, down to business," Barriss said, returning the conversation back to the mission. "Exfil. How do we get off this rock?"

"Simple. Kanta Team will take the _Starhawk_. Spectre Team will fix the _Ghost_ and follow when they can." Hera made it sound like it was supposed to be a blue milk run.

"Not so simple. Without the _Ghost_ , we can't get the entire team off of this planet. We barely even have enough room for six. Nowhere close to twelve people," Sabine countered.

"What about the _Ghost_? Whats the crew capacity for it?" Barriss asked.

"Comfortably, eight. In a pinch, we can hold about thirty." Kanan answered. He may not have piloted the _Ghost_ , but he was well-versed with the ship.

A long pause followed the statement.

"Well, that's a problem," Ahsoka said. The rest of the group couldn't agree more.

"And, of course, the Empire won't stop sending troops at our landing site until all of us are dead," Sabine added.

"Good. Let them come," Barriss responded. "They'll waste more time and troops."

"But we can't hold the site forever. Eventually, they'll overrun us," Ezra pointed out. A pained sigh escaped from Hera's mouth. The situation was starting to seem hopeless.

"And we don't have durasteel to fix the _Ghost_ ," Kanan added.

"We have durasteel," Barriss offered. Hera's eyes lit up. She and Sabine had the technical know-how to fix the ship, but materials were lacking. Hopefully, this would fix the problem.

"How much?" Hera asked.

"As much as you need."

"Well, where is it?"

"I can get it soon."

"Alright. Can we get it now?" Hera asked impatiently.

"Yes. Follow me," Barriss said, getting up and motioning for Kanan and Hera to follow. As they strode out of the bar, Mira and Ephraim walked in, heads held high. They slid in across from Ezra and Sabine.

"So, how's the mission going?" Mira asked. Ezra paused for a moment. Then, he spoke.

"Could be better. The _Ghost_ needs to be repaired, so that's setting us back. And then, Imperials."

"They always seem to be getting in the way, don't they?" Sabine questioned. Ezra nodded.

"They do have a habit of that, _cyar'ika_."

"So, we're going to be fighting a lot?" Ephraim asked, his tone edging into nervousness.

"Yeah, but it won't be anything super hard. Just the normal bucketheads," Sabine interjected.

"Oh, okay. Ezra, can I talk to you for a moment? Alone," Ephraim asked Ezra. Ezra nodded and followed his dad outside the bar. Mira and Sabine watched them go. Then, Mira turned around and stared hard at Sabine.

"What did I do?" Sabine asked the woman in front of her.

"You like Ezra."

"Uhm…"

"You definitely like Ezra," Mira repeated. "I can see it in your eyes."

"Ahm… well…" Sabine was stalling for time now, just so Ezra could come back in and confess with her. "I might…"

"I knew it!" Mira exclaimed. "For how long?"

 _Chit._

Sabine thought rapidly. Stall for time, so Ezra and she could confess together? No. That wasn't working. _Fine. I'll just admit,_ Sabine thought.

"Uhm… about half a year? Maybe more?"

"How long have you been together?"

"A month?"

"Have you ever kissed?"

 _Chit. Just… chit._ Sabine very nearly cursed. "Yeah…"

"What was it like?"

"Do you ever shut up?"

"Rarely. What was it like?"

Sabine sighed and produced a datapad. Keying the power and entering her password, she tossed it to Mira.


	10. Chapter 10: Dancing Blades

(After about three chapters of development that would be incredibly boring to read, so I skipped it…)

 _I sat on the bunk with Ezra. I felt excited, like I had just gotten something really amazing for my birthday. A new jetpack, maybe._

" _I think... I think I have feelings for you, Ezra," I stammered. I never felt comfortable doing anything with my feelings. And now, I was practically grappling with them._

 _Ezra continued to sit on his side of the bed, his pose normal but his eyes bright. He returned the love that I had just confessed, I knew. I could tell from his eyes, blue and beautiful._

 _I leaned forward, nearing Ezra. Then, without me noticing exactly when it happened, our lips met and parted. The small bit of satisfaction that I had felt left me._

 _No, that's not enough, I thought, and all of a sudden I was hugging myself to Ezra, and he was hugging himself to me. And our lips met._

 _His lips were so unbelievably soft, aside from a small cut on his lower lip, over to the left of it. That was rough, but it wasn't directly hindering me, so I didn't care. I dug my fingers into the short hairs behind Ezra's head. My eyes closed unintentionally._

 _I opened my mouth slightly, allowing my tongue to graze the edge of Ezra's lip. But, before I could retract my tongue, Ezra responded in kind as mine fought his fervently. The feeling was unbelievable. I felt a rush that was only equaled by charging into battle against more than nine foes._

 _I could have stayed in Ezra's arms forever._

Third Person POV

Mira slid the datapad back to Sabine, sitting across the table from her. "Well, I wasn't expecting that," the older woman said. It was about five minutes later.

"Thanks?" Sabine responded, not sure if the statement was a insult or compliment.

"You're welcome. So, last question."

 _And thank god for that_.

"When he asks you to marry him, you're not going to toy with him or anything like that? Or worse, say no and break his heart?"

 _What?_ Sabine thought. But, repeating the question in her head, she knew the answer.

"I won't say no. I will make him sweat it a bit, though," the young Mandalorian woman said, grinning slightly. "He can't get too comfortable."

"Good. That wouldn't be good for him," Mira agreed.

"So, what's your relationship currently at with Sabine?" Ephraim asked, an eyebrow raised.

"Girlfriend. _Cyar'ika_. Currently, nothing more," Ezra answered truthfully. They had walked away from the bar to talk privately, and it had taken roughly two minutes. Maybe three.

"And do you plan to change that?"

"Yep."

"When?"

Ezra took up an air of defiance now. "Not telling," he said firmly.

"Oh? So it must be soon," Ephraim guessed.

"Maybe, maybe not," Ezra said, not elaborating.

"Do you want some advice?"

"Shoot."

"Do it soon. You'll only hurt her, and by extension yourself, by waiting," Ephraim advised, speaking from experience.

"And your other advice is 'don't hurt her, because you'll hurt yourself more'?" Ezra added.

"Yep."

"And now you want to know if I'm gonna follow your advice. And the answer is: not telling."

"You really don't want to tell me about that," Ephraim observed.

"Gee, how'd you tell?" Ezra retorted sarcastically. But his dad had struck a nerve.

"Hey, I won't pry. And lastly, we might want to get back inside. I think your mother will be done interrogating Sabine now," Ephraim said, striding back to the door. It hissed open, and both the father and son walked into the bar.

"Or not."

Sabine and Mira seemed to be deep in conversation. It was very animated, with both participants hands moving rapidly as they tried to explain whatever they were talking about with both words and gestures.

Ezra approached the group warily. Obviously, he didn't want to disturb the conversation between the two. But, alas, his stealth skills were outmatched by Sabine's abilities.

"Hey, Ezra, is Geonosis controlled by the Empire?" she asked, turning around and looking straight at him.

"Last I heard, yeah," Ezra answered. He was a bit crestfallen at the fact that Sabine had known he was there, but he recovered quickly.

"See?" Sabine said, returning her gaze to the woman sitting across from her. Ezra sat back down, next to Sabine. Ephraim did the same, across from his son. He gave his wife a sideways glance, all but confirming the suspicion that Ezra and Sabine both had that said they had organized this.

"Most of the Galaxy is controlled by the Empire, Geonosis included," Ezra said after he sat down.

"Well, I knew that," Mira said. "I thought the Rebellion had liberated Geonosis already."

"No, we haven't. I don't know when we will," Ezra responded.

Across the bar, someone rose, clad in all black, with a small cloth over their mouth. Ephraim was the only one to notice.

"Hello. That looks like trouble waiting to happen," he said to the rest of the group, pointing to the cloaked figure.

"Hold up. He's coming this way," Ezra tacked on. He had now seen the person too.

The figure strode through the crowd unobtrusively. They had a small emblem sewn onto their left side, just below their neck, but it was mostly covered by the cowl of the cloak they were wearing.

And a glint of silver, just below the person's waist, caught Ezra's eye.

Sabine hadn't noticed when Ezra got up and walked over to a cloaked person in the crowd. Nor had she noticed when Ephraim unobtrusively pulled a pistol from the holdster he had on his hip.

She did notice, however, when all hell broke loose.

She had just gotten done explaining that Lothal was back under Imperial control when she heard a lightsaber activate. Then other. Turning her head, she saw a green glow, combined with a red one.

Then, she heard a clash of saber on saber. And some gunshots.

She quickly rose, running to the general area of the sound, where a thick crowd stood. Nobody, except for the front row, could see what was going on.

She was gonna get to that front row.

Roughly, she started weaving, and occasionally shoving, her way through. Her eyes were longing for an image of what was happening. Behind her was Mira, but she eventually had to break off, settling for a position at the middle of the crowd. Ephraim was nowhere to be seen.

Jostling the last person aside, she saw what was happening. Ezra, his green blade flashing and parrying, was almost dancing, weaving an intricate form of combat against a black clad opponent with a circular saber, which spun around.

Another man, also clad in all black, also stood near the small battle. Now, he decided to take a hand. His hidden lightsaber leapt to his palm, and he ignited his crimson-bladed weapon.

Quickly comming Barriss and Ahsoka, Sabine told them to get there fast. The crowd was beginning to evaporate as another Sith joined the duel. Then, when Sabine ignited her Darksaber, those remaining dove behind tables and walls, and watched the fight from behind those areas. One couple, most likely on a first date, was holding a recorder and videotaping the duel, as Ezra danced with death and Sabine used her Darksaber to ward off the strikes of her opponent.

The door to the establishment opened, and Ahsoka, followed closely by Barriss, entered, lightsabers drawn.

"Oh, kriff," Ahsoka muttered. Her lightsabers flew behind her as she charged inwards.

On some silent command, seven more black-cloaked figures dropped downwards. One of them made a gesture, and immediately, fourteen more red blades hummed to life.

"Oh, _chit_ ," Sabine cursed under her breath. Ahsoka was a little more flagrant.

"Oh, give me a karkin break!" she cursed, her words carrying clearly to everyone as she and Barriss began to fight the new opponents.

Ezra dodged a thrust from one opponent as he deflected another cut from a different opponent. He spun around, exposing a small flaw in the defense of one of his three opponents. He stabbed his saber into the gap, the blade sizzling as it found flesh. The Sith he was facing clutched feebly at the wound and fell, moaning in pain. Ezra would have felt bad, but he didn't have the time, as his other two opponents were suitably, and understandably, maddened by the fact that one of their number had just been taken out of the fight. One of them shouted as they brought their blade down it a stroke that would have cleaved Ezra from head to toe if it had made contact.

If.

Sabine dodged past her opponent's slash, jumping off of a stool to take out another one of the fighters. She plunged her black blade into one of the fighters, who had her blade held above her head. The Sith gave a cry of pain and alarm.

Then she fell silent.

Ahsoka was engaged with several opponents, her silvery-white blades flashing as she blocked and parried the cuts and barbaric slashes of her enemies. Her bladework was beautiful as she almost flew across the small field of combat.

A cut from the left met her left saber, and she deflected it to the side, lunging forward, thrusting her saber into her opponent's midsection. An instant kill. She quickly spun and parried a cut from other opponent. Her riposte caught the enemy in the upper torso, wounding them, but not seriously enough to put them out of the fight. Ahsoka solved the problem with a sideways cut into the Sith's ribs, the black line able to be traced clearly.

Barriss had only one opponent fighting her, but they were clearly outmatched. She flashed her twin sabers around, battering her opponent's guard from a million different angles. Finally, a small cut dropped her opponent's guard and raised her base. Already, Barriss was capitalizing on the error, with her other saber severing the saber in half. Saber gone, the Sith tried to retreat, but Barriss had other ideas. Quickly, she summoned the Force and sent the enemy duelist flying into one of the walls, overturning a table in the process.

Meanwhile, Sabine was dueling her two opponents. Barriss watched as she used her sonic repulsor to send one flying back and stun the other. The fact that it was only a momentary respite was rewarded with a sidekick to one of her opponent's midsections, tossing them back. Then, a quick saber cut across the throat cut off an chance at survival. Her other opponent rebounded from his blast backwards as a white blade sunk into his side. He gave a choking cry, his face white as he staggered and fell. A small bit of blood leaked out of his mouth.

Ahsoka jumped backwards from her striking position, using the Force to boost her jump height as she came down hard on her final opponent's shoulders. He was pushed to the floor, exhaling sharply. His lightsaber came down onto his back, burning through his flesh. The all-black man died, victim of a fatal accident.

Ezra blocked one Sith's slash and finished her off with a quick riposte, the lightsaber plunging into her ribs. His final opponent, enraged by the loss of his final comrade, charged at Ezra, roaring. His onslaught would kill Ezra for sure.

Suddenly, the tip of the Darksaber appeared from his chest. The lightsaber he was holding dropped, clattering to the floor.

Sabine spun on her heel and withdrew the blade from the back of the final opponent. She brushed one of her bangs out of her eyes. Her fancy bladework had been unnecessary, but it had impressed Ahsoka and Barriss, so all was well.

"Fancy bladework," Barriss commented. Sabine nodded.

But the brief and insanely bloody skirmish had not left the party unharmed. Across the room, the group of four Jedi heard a wail of grief and pain.

Mira sat back on her haunches, her face wracked with guilt. Her hands cradled Ephraim's head. A small red stain was on his chest.

"They shot him… they… the b*****ds shot him!" Mira cried, tears sliding down her face. Sabine looked over to the edge of the room. A man, clad in a jacket, grey jeans, and a black tee shirt, lay face down on the floor. Next to him was a woman, slumped over a chair. She wore much the same as the man, save for shorts instead of jeans and no jacket.

Barriss knelt down, next to the prone figure of Ephraim. Slowly, deliberately, she placed her hands on Ephraim's chest, a small green glow enveloping them.

The green glow slowly got more and more powerful, shining brightly, the walls turning a beautiful shade of green as the Force healed Ephraim. His breath slowly became more regular, as opposed to the normal, ragged breaths of the wounded.

"If we can get him to a bacta tank, he'll be alright," Barriss reported. Mira nodded, still crying softly.

Ezra called his comm, and almost thirty seconds later, Kes and Shara arrived with a small stretcher. The landing pad, fortunately, was basically right next to the bar, so medical supplies from the _Starhawk_ were easy to get to.

"What- oh. Oh. Get him on," Shara said, her eyes full of concern.

Ezra quickly floated his dad onto the white fabric of the stretcher. He grimaced slightly when the movement aggravated a small burn on his lower arm. No doubt he was worried- his hand was shaking. Several barely audible curses were overheard by Sabine and Kes, presumably from Ezra or Ahsoka. Barrisse's mouth wasn't moving.

A small crowd of people had formed outside of the bar, like moths to a light. They formed a nearly immovable wall for most.

Not for the Jedi.

All they had to do was draw a lightsaber.

Ahsoka ignited both of her silvery blades, almost burning through the crowd as the pedestrians parted, letting the Jedi-Rebel group pass by. Several muted comments were heard, mostly just vague comments about what happened. None were accurate. Sabine guessed that most were just shots in the dark.

A medical facility was nearby, thankfully. Ezra had secretly been worrying that they would have to walk for hours to reach a medbay. But, as luck would have it, only about five minutes had passed when they reached the area.

"In here," the med techs called. One of them had grey hair, with small bags under his eyes. He looked about eighty. The other looked much younger, maybe twenty, with sleek black hair that flowed down her head and onto her shoulders. She wore glasses, with black frames and a rectangular design.

Ezra and Sabine increased to a jog, with Ahsoka and Barriss doing the same. Kes had left to go back to the _Starhawk_ for guard duty some time earlier.

The medbay was a stark place. All white covered the area, with small rooms on the sides. Each had a single bed in them, along with some basic medical necessities. Among them, Ezra saw some blood bags, along with several AEDs and even some thermometers. Also, there were a few Pulmonary Resuscitation Kits evident.

Sabine lay a comforting hand on Ezra's shoulder. Obviously, he was (understandably) in turmoil. Barriss and Ahsoka, walking ahead of the two, were oblivious.

"It'll be okay," Sabine said softly. Ezra looked sideways at her. Understanding. Caring. Loving. All of these emotions swirled together in her amber eyes.

"Thanks, Sab," Ezra responded. Sabine landed a quick peck on his cheek.

"Don't mention it."

The med techs eventually reached a room. Above the door, a small sigh read _Treatment Room A24_. The room was spacious.

"Will he be alright?" Mira asked desperately. The older medic nodded.

"He should be. Now go away. I can't work with an audience."


	11. Chapter 11: Meddling in Matchmaking

**_Thank you for the kind reviews, everybody! They truly warm my heart._**

 ** _To ODST Ezra B: I have never seen/read either the Maze Runner or G.I. Joe._**

* * *

 _Almost three days later…_

* * *

Sabine woke up to the sound of what sounded like an X-Wing landing. Slowly, she swung herself down, pulling on her boots and fastening her weapons belt. She was wearing sweatpants and a black tee shirt. She noticed Ezra wasn't in his bunk, directly under hers. Not quite surprising, considering he usually got up before her.

Casually, Sabine walked through the door of the room. Outside, there was nobody. Down the ramp were a couple people, however, Ezra among them. He also wore casual clothes.

Outside, several X-Wings had landed. All of them bore either red or blue markings. One of the pilots looked vaguely familiar. As the cockpit opened, Sabine realized why.

The pilot climbing down the boarding ladder was Luke Skywalker. The hotshot pilot that destroyed the Death Star. Now a Lieutenant Commander in the Alliance. All because of a medal. Jesus.

His rank was equal to Sabine and Ezra's, then. Sabine didn't come to the realization until Luke greeted them officially.

"Hello, Ezra, Sabine," he said, shaking their hands individually.

"What brings you here, Luke?" Ezra asked.

"Official Rebellion business. While you two were here, Yavin had to be evacuated, and the Imperial fleet here was pulled away. So, congratulations. You two were the ones who found the new Rebel Alliance Base," Luke answered, smiling.

"Well, fantastic, I guess," Sabine said.

Luke nodded and continued on, greeting the remaining Rebels. The next person Ezra and Sabine saw was Wedge Antilles. He walked towards them with his usual saunter.

"Hey, Ezra! Hey, Sabine!" He didn't quite shout, but it certainly wasn't all that quiet either. Not that the reception was quiet, though.

"Wedge!" Ezra called back, high-fiving one of his best friends outside of the _Spectres_. Sabine just flashed a grin at Wedge. He was like a brother to her and Ezra.

"How you two been doing?" Wedge asked in his usual friendly demeanor.

"Well enough," Sabine answered. "Attacked by nine Sith, Ezra's dad got shot, and we've completed our mission. So, yeah, we're doing okay."

"Your dad got shot, Ezra?" Wedge responded, concerned.

"In the shoulder, yeah. He's recovering," Ezra answered. He was somewhat touched by Wedge's concern for his dad.

"Well, that's good," Wedge said sympathetically.

"What brings you here, Wedge?" Sabine asked. "Aside from the new Rebel Base and all. What got you into a squadron with Luke Skywalker?"

"You know the attack on the Death Star?"

"Yeah."

Well, Luke was in Red Squadron with me. We were the only two survivors of our squadron, so High Command merged us with Stealth Squadron. Now, we're called Rogue Squadron. Luke's the Squadron Commander," Wedge explained. "It's a longer story, but I won't bore you with details."

"Thank you," Sabine said.

"So, your ship. How's it handle?" Wedge asked next. He had helped retrofit the _Starhawk_ when they had gotten to the base the first time. It had been manufactured during the Clone Wars, so there was a lot to do.

"Much better than it did. And those guns also help. Shred TIEs just like you said," Ezra responded. The retrofit had definitely improved the fighter's combat skills, along with almost everything else. The stealth system made the fighter a ghost (sorry, unintentional pun) but the weapons gave it knives. Sabers. Blasters.

"Told ya," Wedge said, winking. He really had a way with fighters. Or bombers, for that matter. Frankly, if it flew, he was at least adept with it.

"Thanks, by the way," Sabine said.

"For the weapons? No problem."

"Thanks anyway."

They talked about the ship for a while, until several GR-75 transports began the descent to the surface.

"Well, I'd better help with unpacking," Wedge said. Obviously, someone else was vying for his attention, but his excuse was fair, so neither Ezra nor Sabine called him out on it.

"What do you think?" Ezra asked Sabine after Wedge left.

"Yeah, he's definitely crushing on somebody," Sabine responded, nodding. "Shall we find out?"

"After you, my lady," Ezra said, with a mock bow in her direction.

"Shut up."

 _Three weeks later…_

* * *

The Jedi and the Mandalorian snuck through the halls unintentionally, following Wedge loosely. The deep crowd masked their movements excellently. The fact that Wedge wasn't expecting followers helped as well.

The entryways to the hangar were massive affairs, reinforced with durasteel. Already, the rebels had installed a large hangar door. It opened into the ground, giving way to a massive subterranean base that rivaled the expansiveness of Yavin Base.

"Okay, Wedge is going to the hangar," Sabine reported over the comm both rebels wore. Ezra wore it on his wrist, while Sabine had it built into her helmet.

"Copy," Ezra responded, keeping their target in site.

Wedge was oblivious as he entered the hangar to help unload the new GR-75s that had just arrived. One of them was still touching down.

"He's heading for the far left transport," Sabine told Ezra.

"Copy," Ezra responded again.

Wedge started for the far left transport, which also had a girl heading for it. She had medium length dirty blonde hair, which was held in a ponytail. She had a very demure manner about her, but she wasn't shy. Sabine had gotten to know her well a few weeks ago, and had introduced Ezra formally yesterday. Her name was Taren. Apparently, she was partially Mandalorian, from her grandmother.

Ezra walked towards the freighter on the right of the one where Wedge would work. He didn't want to make it obvious that he was tailing Wedge, so he wouldn't work next to him.

It was fairly normal work. Just carrying boxes and such. But, as Ezra moved the boxed tools and rations, he snuck glances to were Wedge was working.

He was also moving boxes, but right now he was in a reasonably animated conversation with Taren. Sabine was standing nearby, helping a different rebel, but she was close enough to overhear the conversation. She had a recorder in her pocket and was making sure to record the conversation, mostly to figure out if Ezra's theory about him and Taren was correct.

"Okay, they're moving apart," Ezra said into his wrist comm.

"I can tell. Do I follow?" Sabine responded.

"Negative. Finish up and RTB."

"Copy."

 _Five minutes later…_

* * *

"So, what did you pick up?" Ezra asked, barely able to contain his curiosity.

"Babe, chill. I'll get to it," Sabine teased.

Ezra didn't look convinced. "Really?"

"Alright, fine," Sabine said, with feigned reluctance.

Sabine plugged the disk of the recording into a small holoterminal. Immediately, sound came out. Most was just awkward banter. But near the end, one line caught Ezra's attention.

"So… see you tonight?"

The recording ended there. Ezra looked at Sabine, the question obvious.

"So, what caught your eye?" Sabine asked. She had caught the final line too, and was wondering if Ezra had as well.

"The final line," Ezra replied after a moment's hesitation. "The one where Wedge said 'see you tonight.'"

"I think I know where he'll go," Sabine said. She played back the message.

" _I've been dying to see Halo!"_ Taren was saying.

" _Actually, the movie theater is playing it tonight. Do you want to go?"_

" _Yes. Yes. And in case you didn't hear the first time, yes."_

" _Alright. I'll get us tickets. It's at 2100 hours."_ **(Nine o'clock)**

"So, now the question is: do we spy on their date?" Ezra asked. Sabine glared at him.

"No! That's something you don't do, Ezra!"

Ezra smiled a little and held his hands up defensively. "Okay," he half chuckled.

"You better not, Ezra," Sabine said, still glaring.

"I won't," Ezra responded as honestly as he could. He stared into Sabine's angry eyes, which melted under his truthful gaze. She could never stay angry at Ezra unless he was angry as well. And that had only happened once.

"You better not."

 _The next day…_

"Hey, Wedge," Sabine called, seeing the pilot exiting the breakfast line. He looked a little tired, most likely from the movie. It was relatively early as well, about six in the morning, so that might have contributed too.

"Hi, guys," Wedge responded, sitting down across from the Mandalorian and the Jedi. Obviously, he had several things on his mind, but as usual, he needed some prodding to open up.

"So, how was your date with Taren?" Ezra asked, completely disregarding subtlety. Instantly, Wedge blushed.

"What?" the pilot asked. "What date?"

"Don't play dumb, Wedge. We have recorded proof that you went on a date with Taren," Sabine half teased. "Now, spill it!"

Wedge felt like he was under a light in one of the cells of the base, with Sabine Wren the interrogator asking him questions.

"What recorded proof?" Wedge was stalling for time now.

"A diskette," Ezra answered, not giving much away.

"Wait.. did you two follow me to the movie?"

Sabine and Ezra looked at each other quickly, then said in unison, "We can neither confirm nor deny any or all of the above statements." It was an old spy trick: talk fancy.

Unfortunately, Wedge had a little more in his skull than most Imperial interrogators. He knew what that meant. A little groan escaped from his mouth. "Great. You saw me and Taren on a da-" Wedge quickly shut up, but not before he gave away too much information.

Sabine put one hand on her chin, so her chin was in between her thumb and forefinger. "Were you going to say a 'date,' Wedge?" she asked slowly.

Wedge hesitated, then nodded meekly, with a bit of defeatism in his voice.

"Well, looks like we were correct," Ezra said to Sabine. "Don't worry, Wedge. We won't tell anybody."

"Thanks," Wedge said, smiling slightly.


	12. Chapter 12: Revealed to the Rebellion

"Hey," Ezra said, waving a little at the roughly fourteen kid standing across from him. Ahsoka stood next to him.

"Hey," the kid responded. "Um… my name's Raven. What's yours?"

"Ezra," Ezra answered. Simple question, simple answer. "Ezra Bridger."

Raven's eyes widened slightly. "The commander?"

"The commander. Please, no formalities," Ezra stated, seeing Raven moving to salute.

"Okay," Raven said, nodding quickly. Ahsoka turned around and saw the two talking, but didn't comment.

" _Red alert! All hands, red alert!_ " the base comm sounded. Raven looked around worriedly.

"Raven, we'll be fine," Ahsoka said. "Follow me."

They dashed off in the direction of the barracks. Ezra turned and ran for the surface of the base, where a squad of Mandalorians crouched in the shadows surrounding the landing platform.

"Al'verde, (Commander) the Imperials have touched down already on Landing Pads Three and Four. All squads are ready for a counteroffensive. We are waiting on your mark, sir," a lieutenant reported.

"Tell them to begin the offensive when the commandos show up. Until then, block access to the tunnels, ver'alor (Lieutenant)" Ezra ordered. Several flashes of red came from jai'galaars as the Mandalorians held the stormtroopers at bay.

Sabine came running up the tunnel path next, followed by several commando squads. Both of her guns were in her hands, ready to be fired.

"Sabine. I've ordered the Mandalorians to wait until you and the commandos got here. Get into position," Ezra told her. Sabine nodded and waved her commandos forward. After a few seconds, Ezra got a call over his comm.

"Ready and waiting, Spectre Six."

Ezra waited for a second, then gave his command.

"Go!"

With a wordless roar, the Mandalorians he was commanding charged forward, blasters firing rapidly as the stormtroopers struggled to keep accurate fire up. More _Sentinel_ shuttles were touching down, but few actually unloaded stormtroopers before being torn apart by X-Wings strafing them.

The commandos, led by Sabine, forced their way into the small defensive circle as the Mandalorians blew open the circle with a multitude of thermal detonators. Ezra had a tight little smile on his face as he watched two ships be torn apart by the explosion, which aso damaged a third. Stormtroopers fell left and right, making ugly cracking sounds as they collapsed onto the metal landing pads.

Ezra spun his saber, expertly blocking a shot back into a stormtrooper. He followed the action with a leap behind a gunnery crew in one of the shuttles. The bucketheads barely had time to register Ezra's presence before he cut them down with a quick forward-and-backward sweep of his saber, putting charred black lines on their no longer shiny armor.

Sabine dove into cover as a rocket soared through the air beside her, courtesy of a trooper roughly fifteen meters in front of her. Quickly, she popped her head out and shot the trooper squarely in the face. The launcher dropped from his hands and made a little _thunk_ as it hit the floor. Then, he fell to the durasteel with the usual clatter of plastoid on metal.

All fell quiet.

A excited Mandalorian came running up to Sabine and gave her a quick salute before speaking. "Al'verde! The enemy has withdrawn from pads Three and Four! We've won!"

"Keep your squad's eyes on the sky, ver'alor. Knowing the Imperials, they will try to fake us out," Sabine told the roughly twenty lieutenant. He nodded and ran off, likely to tell Ezra the same message.

The combined Mando-commando group returned to the shadows around the landing pad, resting weapons against boxes as a rotation of sentries was set up to keep watch on the skies.

Ezra sat to the side of the tunnel, leaning his back against the rough stone wall. Unconsciously, he was twiddling his thumbs.

Sabine walked towards the Jedi slowly. She held her helmet by her side, most likely because the visor had been blackened by a lucky shot from a stormtrooper. Now she couldn't see anything if she put it on, and worst of all, the paint had been severely messed up.

Needless to say, that particular trooper was stone-cold dead.

"Hey, Ezra," Sabine said, trying to make conversation. "How do you think these stormtroopers got here?"

"Probably an ISD," Ezra answered. He was deep in thought.

"Ezra, is something wrong?" Sabine asked, kneeling next to him.

"I can never hide anything, can I?" Ezra questioned, looking up at Sabine.

"Not really, no."

Ezra sighed. "Have you ever thought of what happens when the war ends?"

"No…" Sabine said, her voice trailing off.

"We're soldiers, Sabine. But what happens when we don't need to be? What happens when the galaxy doesn't need soldiers?"

"Honestly, I never thought of that," Sabine said, sitting down next to Ezra. "I was kinda trapped in the present… I never thought about the future."

"Someday, our weapons will rust, Sabine, and I don't know where I'll be when they do."

"I do," Sabine responded, her voice quiet, her tone lustful. Ezra looked at Sabine, and she seized the the opportunity.

As she broke off from the kiss, Sabine whispered, "Next to you."

Laura Toledo, Lieutenant First Class, looked wistfully back into the dark tunnel. She had been waken from a deep sleep by the red alert, and now she was yearning to get back to bed.

As she stared into the darkness, she saw an unusual sight: Commander Wren making out with Commander Bridger. Not exactly publicly, but it was nonetheless not something you saw every day.

Needless to say, the entire base knew by the end of the day.

* * *

 _The next day. D36, 0ABY._

* * *

"Congratulations, guys," Wedge said as the newly pronounced couple walked towards the small table. Doubtless, they would be holding hands if they weren't holding their trays.

"Thanks, Wedge," Ezra responded. He had a bright look on his face. Come to think of it, he always had that face on when he was standing near Sabine, in varying degrees. Now was the brightest that Wedge had seen.

As they sat down, Hera tossed them a datadisk from the other end of the table. "Thyferra briefing," the Twi'lek said, obviously referring to the disk.

"Well, we had to do it sometime," Sabine said.

"Thyferra briefing?" Wedge wondered aloud.

"Before we came here," Sabine explained, "We were going to Thyferra for a data grab."

"Oh, okay," Wedge said, nodding.

"So I heard that Rogue Squadron has a new mission too?" Ezra asked, trying to change the subject.

"Classified," Wedge said, grinning. Ezra deflated. But he was blown back up as Sabine took the conversation in a very common path for the small group.

"So how are things between you and Taren?"

Instantly, Wedge's face flushed. His words slowed to an unsteady stammer. "Uhh…"

Fortunately, he was saved from embarrassment as Ahsoka and Raven walked in.

"H-hey, Ezra," Raven said, sitting across from the legendary figure.

"Hey. Guys, this is Raven," Ezra said, saving Raven from embarrassment.

"Hello, Raven," Sabine and Wedge chouresed.

"Hey," Raven repeated.

"So, when did you get here?" Sabine asked. Raven half shrunk into his seat, obviously not comfortable with the spotlight being on him.

"Umm… maybe a seven days ago?" Raven answered, clearly uncomfortable.

"Yeah, that sounds about right," Ahsoka said, looking up from her meal. "Nice base the Rebellion established here, by the way."

"It's not done. This is only after three weeks. Wait until we finish," Ezra stated, clearly proud of the base. But not to the point where it was hubris.

"Oh," Raven stammered. His purple eyes were wide. In his mind, the cavernous areas that formed the base was the largest man-made structure he had ever seen. Endless tunnels, linking nearly infinite areas, made for easily the largest base that the Rebellion had ever built, and for a mere fourteen-year-old, it was as expansive as Coruscant.

An awkward silence settled over the group. Finally, Ezra broke it, looking behind Ahsoka to a figure walking towards the table.

"Well, if it isn't Stardust," he joked. Jyn Erso smiled a little. The rare material had become her nickname as well as callsign. In fact, when she had escaped from Scarif in the nick of time, the sand coating her had been called stardust accidentally.

"Hello," Jyn called back, walking past the group to join her circle of close friends at other table.

The group ate for a while more with a little more pleasant banter, until Ahsoka excused herself, and Ezra and Sabine followed suit.

* * *

 _Back in the_ Starhawk….

* * *

"The central Data Complex on Thyferra is heavily guarded. Several Stormtrooper squads guard the main gate, and every other documented entrance is under guard. You'll have to get creative with this one," the holo said. "On here is a schematic of the Data Complex. Use it if you wish."

Then, the blue light of the hologram fizzled out. Ezra keyed the holotable, and a map of the Data Complex appeared next. Immediately, all the known entrances were highlighted in fluorescent red. Guards were in orange. Kes whistled quietly.

"Wow. They weren't lying when they said this place was heavily guarded. I'm counting a full company of guards here," Mira said. She had changed from her citizen clothes into a camouflaged jacket and brown trousers, with her hair tied into a bun at the back of her head. A A280C was next to her, leaning on her chair.

"Why would Command lie? They know full well that we need to have accurate information in order to succeed," Sabine countered.

"Alright. Here. This entrance has the least guards," Shara said, bringing the conversation back to the mission.

"Alright. If we can draw them away from here, then we might have an opening," Sabine said. "Can the _Ghost_ draw them away?"

"No," Ezra responded dejectedly. "They have a very time-sensitive mission on their hands. We're alone for this one."

" _Haar'chak…_. Well, at least we have another distraction," Sabine said, in a similar tone. She produced a detonator from her utility belt and smiled.

"Always the artist, aren't you?" Ezra asked, a tight little grin on his face.

"You know it."


	13. Chapter 13: Blue Milk Run

The _Starhawk_ appeared on the edge of the Polith system and hovered there for a few seconds as it's crew looked over the pleasant green and blue planet in front of them. Thyferra was the main bacta planet, however, so the Empire had taken a special interest in it. A lone Star Destroyer orbited. However, a stream of ships were going towards the planet.

"Think we can sneak in, Shara?" Ezra asked.

"Definitely. This should be easy," Shara responded, smiling slightly. It was likely going to be a blue milk run to enter Thyferran atmosphere.

A blur came across the viewport as a second, and then a third, Star Destroyer hyperspaced into the system. Ezra paled at the sight.

"On second thought, not so easy," Shara said in a timid voice, barely more than a squeak.

"Oh, haran," (Oh, hell,) Sabine commented as she walked into the cockpit. Despite the fact that they had run a blockade of the entire 7th Fleet before, three Star Destroyers was an intimidating sight. And, to make matters worse, the Empire could start destroying innocent ships, making the mission disastrous for the Alliance.

"We have a cloaking device, right?" Shara asked. Ezra nodded.

"Stygium crystals. No idea how the Alliance got it, but we have it."

Shara's eyebrows shot up. Stygium cloaking devices were exceedingly rare. If the Alliance had gotten their hands on one… well, that was monumentous, to say the least. If they could get more…

Shara shook the thought aside. _Time enough for that later. Now, I need to work,_ she chastised herself. Quickly, she turned to Ezra, standing beside her.

"Have you tested the ship's cloaking before?" Shara asked.

"Yes. It should work," Sabine responded.

"I don't like should. Well, here goes nothing," Shara said, and hit the button for the cloaking system.

The ship began to fly towards the Star Destroyers slowly, at about a hundred KPH, which does seem like a lot, but this thing's top speed is 1,000 KPH, so this actually is pretty dang slow.

Time seemed to creep by as the _Starhawk_ slunk by the underbelly of the Star Destroyers. They seemed silent and unmoving.

Little pings came from the radar as the sensors picked up other ships, such as civilian transports and TIE fighters. The tension was nearly unbearable.

A TIE squadron began to fly on a course that would send them on a collision course. If the _Starhawk_ moved too violently, it would be detected.

"Can we fire without de-cloaking?" Ezra asked. Sabine shook her head.

"No. We'll have to decloak."

 _Kriff._ It was unspoken, but still heard.

The TIEs and _Starhawk_ moved ever closer to the collision course.

The silence in the room was palpable.

The TIEs roared by the viewport, so close that any of the three rebels in the cockpit could have touched them as they flew past, had the transparisteel not been in between. Then, they passed by fully, never registering the nearly invisible ship only a few meters away from the squadron.

Sabine released a breath that she didn't know she was holding. The TIEs had been far too close to them, but now they only had to enter Thyferra's atmosphere. Without the ISDs, Thyferra looked beautiful. Like some other planet, but Sabine couldn't quite place the name. All she remembered was something about… another race of humans, and some aliens? Something about Spartans. _It'll come to me_. _Right now, I need to focus on the mission_.

"Find us a landing space," Sabine commanded as Ezra left the cockpit.

Ezra ducked through the small threshold back into his and Sabine's cabin. Already, there were paintings all over the small room. On one side, there was the Ghost in the middle of a battle, with two TIE fighters shooting at it. Sabine was on the top gun, and Ezra was on the ventral turret. The sight brought back noglastia in many forms.

On the other wall was a mural of the new team standing together. Each couple was entwined in some way, whether it was holding one another tightly or just holding hands.

The third painting was definitely the best, however. It was unfinished, but it was a beautiful mural already. It depicted him and Sabine in the middle of a kiss, but the rest was blank. Ezra had a bit of an idea of what would go there, but he made me promise that I wouldn't tell anybody, so, sorry!

What I can tell you, though, is the fact that Sabine did have long-term goals with Ezra. But she also made me promise to not tell anyone, especially Ezra. So, : p you can't know.

snickers*

Sabine walked in next, taking off part of her armor. Seeing Ezra, she explained.

"I figure that we might just go in normal clothes for the time being. Saves having to sneak around." Ezra nodded his consent and began to change into basic clothes, instead of a rather obvious T-shirt with a giant starbird emblazoned on it and camo pants.

Sabine walked out of the refresher that she had retreated into about a minute before, wearing a simple tank top and shorts. She had been on Thyferra before, so she knew of the nearly unbearable humidity. In fact, her mother had her own saying about the pleasant planet.

 _One does not breathe air there. One drinks it._

Sabine smiled to herself at the thought. Slowly, she let her eyes wander over to Ezra. He had changed into a plain grey tee shirt and some cargo shorts. Obviously, he had heard of the thick, almost soupy atmosphere of Thyferra as well.

Ezra looked up from his small datapad. On it was some sort of game with three towers, where you placed down troops to try and destroy the towers. It could be very easy, or very complicated.

At the moment, it was easy. Ezra placed down a X-Wing squadron, and then a Vanguard platoon. The troops marched forward, the X-Wings stopping once to destroy a TIE squad before continuing marching and destroying the Imperial headquarters. He smiled and looked up.

"Hey, Sabine…" Ezra's voice trailed off at the sight of her shoulder. It was tattooed with the form of a red coiled dragon. It looked a bit like a snake, in fact. A snake with legs.

"Hey, Ezra," Sabine responded, snapping Ezra's attention back to the present.

"I didn't know you had tattoos, Sabine," Ezra said, slightly surprised.

"What, you expect your… how did you put it? _Warrior goddess_ … to have some type of body art?" Sabine asked.

"In retrospect, I should have," Ezra answered. "It's not permanent, I take it?"

"No. I'm able to wash it off any time I want with sonics."

" _We're coming up on a landing spot. Everybody, get ready for touchdown,_ " Shara said over the comm.

"Well, let's go see the planet," Ezra said.

"Yeah," was all the answer that Sabine volunteered. Ezra looked at her, tilting his head a bit. Clearly, something was on her mind, but Ezra didn't really want to pry for fear of agitating her too much.

The ship touched down with a gentle thump. It wasn't the smoothest landing that either of the young fighters had ever felt - those were from Hera - but it wasn't horrible, either.

"Nice touchdown," Kes commented, walking out of his room. In his brief time with the main body of Spec Forces, he had experienced more than his fair share of rough landings. It came with the territory.

Shara smiled at the comment as she strode out of the cockpit. Her piloting skills hadn't been put to use for a while, so they did tend to get a bit rusty after a bit. On occasion, she had taken to patrol duty just to keep her skills sharp.

"I've felt better," Mira joked, emerging from her room.

"First day, Mira. Give her a break," Sabine responded.

The small rebel group walked to the extended boarding ramp while Ezra explained the plan.

"Sabine and I will go in first, to scout out the area around the data complex and note possible escape routes. Then, once night falls, we will scout out the complex itself," Ezra explained. "Kes, Shara, you two are on overwatch."

"What if you guys are identified?" Mira asked, worry in her voice.

"Did I say we were going unarmed?" Ezra asked, pulling his lightsaber out of a hidden pocket. Sabine pulled a single gun from it's holster. It was disguised as a self-defense weapon.

"We'll be fine," Sabine said, pulling Ezra down the ramp into the grass. The green blades swished by the two rebel's feet, morning dew pleasantly wet.

Ephraim and Mira watched the two walk off into the distance, the sun just rising.

"They grow up so fast," Mira said, smiling.

John Stasthom looked over to his right, and then back to his left, as was basically the custom for a bored as all kriff sentry. If he even had a city posting, the job might be a little more bearable, as every once in a while there would be someone to toss out. But facing the countryside only meant that he got to see some green hills.

 _Whoop de dang do_.

John looked back to the front. His HUD didn't help much. All it really did was crowd his vision with unneeded readouts and displays. Did he really need an ammo counter when there was nothing to shoot at?

He looked at his blaster again, checking the sights, making sure that the barrel hadn't gained any dirt in the fifty seconds that had passed since he last checked it. My god, this was so kriffing boring. If only someone would-

Movement!

John whirled around, his sights falling on a young couple sitting a about fifty meters away. His spirits, his hopes for some type of excitement, fell as rapidly as they had risen. Kicking two people, teenagers from the look of it, hardly counted as excitement. Besides, they were fifty meters away.

Oh, now it was interesting. Both of the teens were looking at each other. John estimated it was only a matter of time before…

Yes, now it was happening. The two of them were kissing fiercely. Okay, now it was time for them to leave, John guessed. He had let the two have their moment, now they needed to leave.

"Hey! You two, get out of here!" a stormtroopers shouted. Sabine looked over at the white-clad man, a small look of dismay on her face.

"This was the only good place that we could find to see the sunset…" she complained back, her dismay evident.

"Well, too bad! You need to leave!"

Ezra looked at Sabine, his expression depressed.

"We better leave, cyar'ika," he muttered. Sabine looked at her boyfriend with big pleading eyes, begging him to stay here.

"Please? Just five more minutes?" she asked. Ezra told the inquiry to the stormtrooper.

"Well, okay…" John told the teenage-looking kid. He didn't want to ruin a night out for them. John had always been a kind person, unlike most of the sadists that were recruited into the Empire.

But what was the other choice? The Rebellion? They didn't have a chance against the Empire. Not be a stormtrooper? No, he needed to support his family. This route paid the most, so it was the easiest to do.

 _But was it worth it?_ He had been redeployed to Thyferra after the events of Teardrop, where he had been a sentry for the prisoners that the Empire had captured there. He…

He could still see them.

The faces of the innocents as they were shot, one by one, by stormtroopers….

 _That night…_

Ezra snuck up to the ridge, laying down against the ground. Next to him was Sabine, with her helmet on and her blasters drawn.

"Two troopers on the tower. Do you want me to down 'em?" Kes asked through the comm.

"Negative," Sabine responded.

Ezra slid down the small ridge, keeping to shadows. Under Sabine's tutelage, he had become much better at stealth, though Sabine still outclassed him. She was a natural.

Although, she was barely mediocre by Mandalorian standards.

Sabine crouched behind a small stack of boxes as two bucket-heads walked by, looking bored. Ezra snuck up behind her and laid a hand on her shoulder, pointing to a access vent. They had completed recon some time earlier, and now they were executing the actual datagrab.

Sabine nodded. Two stormtroopers walked towards the small vent, E-11s in the standard 'carry' position.

"You already passed this area," Ezra muttered, waving his hand.

"We already passed this area," both stormtroopers said vaguely. They turned and began to walk in the opposite direction.

When they recovered from the mind trick, they would be suitably confused.

"Alright, let's go," Ezra whispered, crouching and moving for the vent. A quick wave of his hand pulled it open, and Sabine scrambled inside, Ezra following close behind her.

They crawled through the vents for a couple minutes, waiting for another vent to appear from the dimness.

"Over here," Sabine whispered, turning around. Next to her was a vent cover.

"Alright. I think this leads into the main data core," Ezra said. This was too good to be true. Sparsely guarded, and an obvious weak point.

Sabine guestured for Ezra to break open the barrier, and Ezra did, crawling out first. He stood up and looked around, then helped Sabine out of the vent.

"We've caught them with the back door open," Sabine commented. Ezra nodded gravely.

Quickly, the rebels scaled the small data spire, a overlook about twenty meters above them. Handholds and footholds were abundant as they climbed.

Sabine reached the control center first, kicking in the glass and sealing the door with a blaster shot into the control panel. Ezra leapt in next, his foot flying into the single officer that stood in the room. He collapsed without a sound.

"Alright, that's finished. Let's get the files and get out," Sabine said, moving over to the terminal to begin hacking. Her fingers flew across keys as she blew past Imperial firewalls with her own custom malware. It was nicknamed ReScript, as the program used a custom JavaScript command to rewrite security protocols.

A few seconds later, Ezra felt something through the Force. Reaching out, he felt several presenses near the landing pads. And, if he could focus well enough….

Yes! Now he could see the transports landing, and the Imperial officer exiting his transport. His white cape billowing behind him, a black cap surmounting his silver-grey hair. His black gloves, one hand straying dangerously close to his oddly-shaped pistol.

 _Haar'chak_ , Ezra cursed, using a Mando'a swear he had grown quite fond of.

Krennic.

Director Krennic himself. He was at the kriffing installation. This one, out of all the kriffing installations across Thyferra. Of. Kriffing. Course.

"Krennic's here," Ezra said out of the corner of his mouth, distaste evident. Sabine cursed as well, only slightly more colorfully.

"Got the datatape. Let's get out of here," she said, her tone slightly worried. Mostly plain angry.

"Same way we came in?" Ezra asked. Sabine nodded, not trusting herself to speak anymore. She looked at Ezra, drinking in his composed and calm features as he climbed out the window.

Ezra extended his hand to a seemingly unconcerned and unflustered Sabine, swinging her out of the small rooms window. Ezra had butterflies in his stomach. How was she so relaxed? The maker of the karkin Death Star was at the same base as them, for kriff's sake!

Sabine crawled into the air vent before Ezra. He crept in, using the Force to swing the vent shut.

And not a moment too soon, for as Ezra closed the duct, the slab of metal that protected the datacenter was flung backwards. Death Troopers filed in, seeing the shattered glass and the KO'ed officer. Within seconds, the entire base was on alert.

Ezra tumbled out of the vent, rolling to his feet. He crouched next to Sabine, who had both of her pistols drawn. Klaxons blared around the base.

"Commanders? You need to get out _now_ ," Shara said, trying to be helpful. And, unfortunately, failing miserably.

"I know," Ezra responded through gritted teeth. "You're not kriffing helping."

Sabine tapped his shoulder, pointing to a pair of stormtroopers hustling past. She put down two fingers once they passed, in a gun symbol, and pointed across the way twice - the 'go' or 'move' symbol. Ezra nodded, moving with Sabine in front of him.

Sabine was nearly across when she heard a blaster shot ring out. A E-11 shot. Then another. Next, a cry of pain.

 _What? Wh.. no!_ Sabine thought, turning around. Her eyes registered something she never wanted to see, her brain refusing to comprehend it.

Ezra lay on the ground, eyes shut tight. He writhed in pain.

Quick as a snake, Sabine put three bolts into the two stormtroopers that stood at the end of the walkway. They fell without a sound.

"No, Ezra! You are _not_ going to die on me!" Sabine demanded. She wrapped her arms around Ezra's shoulders, pulling him into a small alcove.

"Freeze!"

Sabine jumped, throwing her hands up in a reflex action. _Why didn't I shoot him?_ She wondered.

"Take off the helmet."

Sabine put her hands to the sides of her helmet, pulling it off. She heard a gasp from behind.

"You… you were one of the two teens I saw today! When I was on sentry!"

Sabine turned around slowly. She stared into the face of a stormtrooper, but he wasn't your average stormtrooper.

"Why did you let us stay?" she asked.

"You… you seemed happy, like you were just getting together for the first time. I.. didn't want to ruin it," the stormtrooper explained.

Sabine was silent for a few moments before speaking. "Most Imperials would want to ruin it."

"I'm not like most Imperials."

"In what way?"

"I'm not a sadist."

"Then why are you still in the Empire?"

"What choice do I have?"

A long period of silence followed. Sabine stared at the white helmet long and hard before answering.

"The Rebellion."


	14. Chapter 14: A Desperate Escape

The _Starhawk_ lifted off the small field, activating it's stealth systems as it went. Shara pulled up on the controls, sending the ship rocketing for the atmosphere.

They reached space in a matter of minutes. But, when they reached the top, everyone in the cockpit got a sinking feeling in their stomachs.

Three Interdictors, gravity wells online. Supported by three Star Destroyers. Tartan Patrol Cruisers interspersed between the remaining areas. And everybody was willing to bet that those Interdictors had Crystal Gravfield Traps, which would make any attempt at cloaking useless. And the Tartans made a blockade run next to impossible, as the ships were specifically designed to stop fleeing starfighters.

All in all, the general consensus of the crew was, "We're gonna need backup."

* * *

 _Fifteen minutes later…_

* * *

Two MC80s. Three Nebulon-Bs. Five Alliance Assault Frigates. Ten _Pelta_ gunships, supported by more than fifteen Corellian Corvettes. Countless fighters.

It was the biggest Alliance fleet that anyone in the _Starhawk_ had ever seen, and now it was charging into battle to destroy the Imperial fleet that orbited above Thyferra. Flashes of scarlet and emerald came from turbolasers on both sides, crashing against shields like water onto unyielding, black rocks. So many voices came over the comms, many squadron commanders were limiting the communications to 'squad only' chat. Shara didn't, and now Ezra's eardrums were paying the price.

"Watch your stabilizer!"

"Behind you!"

"Just like Mimbaan!"

"Bandits, six o'clock high, incoming!"

"Gold Wing, form up on me!"

"Green Wing, check in!"

The battle swirled around the space over Thyferra, with hundreds of starfighters vying for air superiority. Ships less so, although corvettes were wading through hundreds of fighters as cannons spewed lasers to try and ward off incoming bombers and fighters. A few civilian transports fled the area as fast as they could, several getting hit by lasers by accident.

And the _Starhawk_ was directly in the middle of the chaos.

Shara threw the ship into a tight dive, screaming past a X-Wing as it fired on a TIE Interceptor. The wreckage flew in several directions, forcing a nearby TIE squadron to break off, leaving them vulnerable to the veteran pilots of Rogue Squadron who pounced on them. The TIEs flew around like headless Endorian Chickens while the Rogues chased them down and vaporized them.

Sabine fired at one of the TIEs that was chasing the _Starhawk_ from the rear, the turret spewing plasma. She had to be careful to not hit any X-Wings.

Ezra stared out the transparisteel of the cockpit, his mind blown by the size of the battle. Atollon had been nothing compared to this.

But, as he watched, a Nebulon took a major hit, ripping it in half. Great. That was the second Nebulon to be destroyed. Only the med frigate remained, and an ISD was heading for it. The rebels needed something to take it out, or at east defend the med frigate. Apparently, the officers realized, as two gunships were moving to intercept the ISD before it could take down the med frigate. Good, that was very much needed.

Not anymore!

A large amount of cheering came over the comm as Gold Squadron sped away from their target, which was now down one bridge, one shield generator, one hangar and one drive system. No hyperspace or maneuvering, no shields, no command and no new fighters. Now, the ship was easy prey for the gunners of the _Balance_. Or _Home One_ , but either would work fine.

"That's for Dantooine!" one of the ecstatic rebel officers yelled, his voice cracking with excitement. A few rebel pilots chorused agreement. Now, for the finishing blow. The _Balance_ was moving in, like the executioner with his sword drawn. Now, only a downward stroke was needed to sever the head of the kneeling opponent. There wasn't any time to take prisoners, anyways.

Yes! The _Balance_ was firing on the ISD, identified as the _Terminix_. Only a few more minutes and-

A huge explosion ripped the _Terminix_ in half, the prow and front half of the ISD tearing off of the ship as it blew apart, falling prey to the _Balance_ 's vermillion onslaught. The halves fell downwards, for some reason. It seemed altogether more likely for them to just float away from each other. _For Alderaan,_ Ezra thought, seething with sadness and anger over the destruction of a entire world filled with innocents.

And one of the Interdictors was now falling prey to _Home One_ 's ion cannons, it's shields failing and the ship itself listing to the side, a orange and black explosion ripping through one of the bulbs on the ships surface. Beautiful. _For Teardrop._

The _Starhawk_ spun in a barrel roll, just barely missing the surface of a Tartan Patrol Cruiser, the durasteel barely a inch apart from collision. The cannons of the _Starhawk_ spewed blue plasma for a second, the cobalt bolts finding their targets and blowing apart the cannons of the Tartan, leaving it useless against fighters and bombers and completely at the mercy of Orange Squadrons Y-Wing pilots.

Proton torpedos ripped into the patrol cruisers sides, smashing through the bulkheads easily like a lightsaber through metal. A tight little smile came across Sabine's helmeted face at the sight. _That's for Balmorra._

One of the AAFs was under fire, though, as it led two others in a spearhead against one of the remaining Star Destroyers. A explosion struck the side of it, shields barely holding against the emerald offensive.

Shara threw the _Starhawk_ into a quick split-s (like a barrel roll, but rolling to the side) and pushed the engines to maximum, accelerating for the ISD at a speed that outmatched even the TIE Interceptors.

Concussion missiles sped away from the _Starhawk_ 's wings, finding targets on the turbolasers of the ISD. But there were still three batteries of lasers left.

Then, Rebel comm teams picked up something very, very unusual.

" _Par kote! Par ijaat! Par Manda'yaim!_ "


	15. Chapter 15: New Combatants, Old Comrades

One of Sabine's gloved hands flew to her mouth when she heard the words. Her vambrace accidentally struck her jaw, and she cursed. Then, she continued firing at any Imperial pursuit, the surprise still shocking her. Was it what she thought it was?

Ezra's jaw dropped when he heard the words. He heard several surprised exclamations from Clan Wren starfighter pilots and navy personnel. The words were something that could only be muttered by a select few people. Was it?...

A blur came across several viewports as a massive ship came out of hyperspace, it's size dwarfing the _Starhawk_ , and rivaling the ISDs and MC80s.

 _Keldabe_.

"This is Manda'lor Bo-Katan Kryze, here to pledge allegiance to the Rebel Alliance," Bo-Katan called over a open channel.

Almost immediately, three more dull grey Keldabes came screaming out of hyperspace, followed by two _Aggressor_ -class destroyers. And other two followed. And then other two. And then ten _Crusader_ -class corvettes, all dropping out of hyperspace at the same time. It made for quite the entrance, as a full Mandalorian battlefleet dropped out of hyperspace. Immediately, red blasts came from lasers and slammed into ISD shields. The entire battlefleet immediately began to engage targets, one ISD, the Revenge, already sinking to the side. Again, Ezra was struck with a sense of confusion. Why was it acting like it was sinking? It made no sense whatsoever.

"Oh my god," Shara whispered.

"Sabine, did you call in the entire Mandalorian fleet?" Ezra asked over the localized comm.

"No. They came themselves," Sabine responded, obviously happy. As if basically all of Clan Wren wasn't enough Mandos to socialize with.

"Wait, the Keldabe is a Mandalorian ship?" Shara asked, recognizing the legendary vessel. Ezra nodded.

"What did they say?" Shara asked next, referring to the battle cry that came from the Mandalorian ships.

"No time!" Ezra exclaimed, pulling the Starhawk out of a collision course with a Crusader. Shara looked back at the battle and resumed control of the Starhawk, a surprised expression still plastered across her face.

The other Interdictor was now erupting into a massive orange fireball, faltering under the sudden attack. All ships were now able to go into hyperspace, and only a single ISD-

Nope, no ISDs left. It was erupting like a lava flow on Mustafar as a full broadside from both a Keldabe and a MC80 hit it, turning it's shield generator into a useless slag heap and doing the same to the rest of the ship soon after. No Imperials left, either. But if the fleets stuck around, they were vulnerable to any Imperial counterattack, and the Empire was guaranteed to send in Thrawn. No, they needed to get out, redress losses, and regroup.

"All ships, prepare for hyperspace!"

* * *

 _Back at Gemena Six…_

* * *

"Sir, our fleet is back!" a rebel ensign called, his voice cracking with excitement. "And they brought friends!"

"What?" General Dodonna asked.

"General Dodonna," a blue hologram said. After a few seconds, the light solidified, identifiable as General Hera Syndulla.

"General Syndulla. What the heck happened on Gemena Six?" Dodonna wondered aloud.

"We engaged the Imperial fleet, started losing, and then got Mandalorian reinforcements. It's a long story."

Dodonna sighed, tired of so many surprises. First Atollon, then Yavin Four and so many in between. He was getting too old for this.

Ezra sat back in his chair on the bridge of the _Starhawk_ , trying to make sense of the entire crazy rescue from Thyferra. A Alliance fleet had jumped in to destroy the Interdictors, lost two Nebulons and three Assault Frigates, and took down one of the Interdictors and a Star Destroyer.

Then, a Mandalorian battle fleet came out of hyperspace, saved the Alliance fleet and destroyed the Imperial fleet. And they had such a cool battle cry, too. Probably one of the best ones he had ever heard.

Sabine entered the small cockpit, sitting down on the copilot's chair. Shara had been relieved by Ezra some time before, and she was now in her room with Kes. Neither Ezra nor Sabine wanted to imagine what was going on in there.

Ezra stared at the blue, white and sometimes black blotches in the small stream of hyperspace. His mind was very, very far away.

"Credit for your thoughts?" Sabine asked, tapping Ezra's shoulder.

"Lothal."

"That seems to be a recurring topic for you," Sabine half-heartedly joked. "What about it?"

"Just… how it's going there. When the war ends, I want to live there," Ezra answered wistfully. "Build a house there, start a family…"

Sabine smiled at her boyfriend. "I think Lothal would be a great place to live, Ezra."

Ezra grinned back at Sabine. He was half surprised that his usually-observant warrior goddess hadn't picked up on his special phrasing.

"So, how many TIEs did we take out today? I saw you accounted for a few," he asked.

"I took out at least five. Those rear guns really do wonders."

"Wedge did say they were nicknamed 'The Anti-TIE,'" Ezra responded.

"Cheesy name," Sabine muttered.

"Oh, like you can do better?" Ezra challenged. He was eager to hear Sabine's proposal for the weapons they had put on in the _Starhawk_ 's retrofit.

"I could," Sabine said. Ezra leaned forward expectantly. "But not right now. Give me a couple days to think of a name," Sabine added, and Ezra slouched back into his seat, defeated.

"Fine."

The console gave a little chime as the rest of the Alliance fleet came out of hyperspace, entering orbit of the new Alliance base over Gemena Six. The world was beginning to show signs of redevelopment on the actual surface of the planet, with some greenery growing on the rocks that now formed the shell of the once-lush moon. Primary succession really did do wonders.

The main Alliance and Mandalorian fleets hovered over the planet, keeping watch over the airspace. The fighters docked into the hangars, but a small echelon of X-Wings and Fang fighters were prepa heading down to the base on the moon. The _Starhawk_ was going ahead and landing first.

" _Starhawk_ to Aurek Base. Are we cleared for landing?" Ezra asked over comms.

"Affirmative, _Starhawk_. Welcome back, Commander," the ground officers replied.

The trip down to the surface was uneventful in the extreme. Only the _Starhawk_ touching down was even remotely exciting, because the landing area was packed with fighters. Sabine had to bite her tongue to keep herself from laughing at Ezra's face, creased in a frown.

"Landed," Ezra called back. Kes stuck his head out of his room, his hair in a mess.

"We have? Jesus, that was smooth."

"Oi!" Shara shouted from somewhere inside the room. Kes paled and ducked back inside.

Sabine laughed a little bit at Kes's uncomfortable position. He was probably sleeping alone tonight.

Quickly, Sabine walked out of the cockpit as Ezra shut off the fighter for the time being. Her mind was thinking of ways to ask Ezra for something, but it didn't seem right. For now, they needed to chalk up the kills that they had gotten. It was the first major engagement that the ship had fought in, since the blockade run to get to Gemena Six didn't count. Right now, there was only one small little TIE symbol on the left wing of the ship. That would have to change.

Grabbing a can of black paint, Sabine turned around. On her bed was a small stencil of a TIE, and she grabbed that too. She could freehand it, of course, but that was for actual TIEs, when she didn't have enough time to do her work neatly. At a secure Rebel base on a secure Rebel planet with secure Rebel airspace, she could to do neat.

Ezra walked a little bit ahead of her, moving for the ramp nearby. A small movement of his hand and the ramp opened, extending downwards towards the hard rock of the underground hangar. Sabine followed, with a little dash to catch up. She showed Ezra the TIE stencil and the black paint, then turned back for the _Starhawk_. Ezra followed casually, using the Force to summon other can of black paint from the storage locker inside the ship.

A few minutes later, Sabine and Ezra stood under the fuselage of the _Starhawk_ , painting on the TIE killmarks. It was a fairly simple job.

Ezra looked up from the fuselage of his ship to see several Fang fighters touchdown about thirty feet away. Several other Mandalorians in the hangar looked at the new arrivals with heightened interest, even more than the general hue and cry of seven starfighters touching down.

In six of the fighters, cockpits opened and basic Mandalorians climbed out, not yet having any decorative designs on their armor.

The seventh fighters cockpit opened without any unusual business. But the occupant of the fighter was the one worthy of note.

Bo-Katan Kryze was reasonably tall, reaching 1.8 meters in height. Taking off her helmet, her auburn hair fell to around her shoulders, held back from her face by a circlet-style hairband. Striking green eyes analyzed the Rebel hangar, taking in every detail from fighter to helmet styles.

"Hello, Manda'lor," Hera greeted, with a small bow. Behind her stood two Rebel guards. Despite the fact that Bo-Katan's battlefleet had helped the Rebels win the battle above Thyferra, the Empire could still have some sway over her. You could never be too careful.

"General Syndulla," Katan responded, nodding her head at the Twi'lek rebel. Ezra and Sabine watched the exchange with some interest. "I have come to pledge Mandalore's loyalty to the Rebellion."

"Of course. Normally, we would require a show of devotion for such a large group, but I'm sure that High Command will overlook this. Due to the help over Thyferra, of course."

"Thank you."

"Now, if you will follow me, Manda'lor?" Hera said formally, spinning on her heel. Katan followed, two Mandalorians behind her. The others took up positions like they were expecting an attack. It was a fairly smart move. Some of the rebels thought that the Mandalorians weren't loyal to the cause.

The entire _Ghost_ crew had been burning with rage at the thoughts. Sabine had come under verbal attack several times by people who thought that the Rebellion would be better off without Mandalorian help, and a SF squad had even had the gall to try to attack some of the Clan Wren barracks. By now, they were pretty much all either jailed in Rebel cells for treason, or six feet down. The Clan Wren Mandalorians had reacted as expected when all of a sudden, their main door was blown in - blasters brandished and armor thrown on. And someone had managed to hit the alarm, so within seconds there were Rebel security teams rounding up all the remaining escapees from the failed attack.

Sabine turned back to painting the killmarks. Best not to interrupt proceedings.

 _One hour later…_

* * *

"This way," Tristan called. He had been selected to lead Bo-Katan and her small entourage to their quarters. It was near the Clan Wren barracks.

A metal door parted down the middle, permitting access to the Mandalorian sector of the base. Rebel command, in light of the SF incident, had begun to section off areas of the base as "SF Barracks," "Mandalorian Barracks," and such. In fact, the term _Barracks_ was fairly loose. They were more like small villages.

Sabine watched as her older brother led the highest-ranking warrior in Mandalorian society to her plain, utilitarian quarters. One of the things that annoyed her the most was the general verdict that she was only allowed to paint her room. On lucky occasions, she was allowed to paint some of the hallways, usually with scathing critiques of the Empire. Typically, it was graffiti about the Empire's monotony, with boring colors and even more boring people.

Sometimes, it was beautiful murals of the best views in the galaxy, from the Angelic Falls on Takodana to the flora and fauna on Saleucami. Many of the Mandalorians had asked Sabine to paint views of Krownest on select parts of their room.

And then there was the few Mandalorians and Rebels that had actually asked her to teach them to paint. At first, she had just stared them down imperiously before saying that she would give them a lesson. Now, she had a little mini art class every threeday. **(Wednesday. Monday is oneday, Tuesday is twoday, etc…)**

"Credit for your thoughts?"

The voice came from behind her, slightly to the right. Hera. Sabine spun around, so she faced the Twi'lek pilot.

"Nothing much. Just.. how far we've come."

"It is amazing, isn't it?"

"Yeah. I mean, a couple years ago we could only raid lightly guarded Imp shipping. Now look." Sabine gestured around to the expansive base. "We have this base, entire worlds on our side, and we blew up a freaking Death Star!"

Hera nodded. "I never thought the Rebellion would grow this big. Anyways, one of your Mando friends is looking for you. They're in the common room near here."

Now it was Sabine's turn to nod as she turned on her heel. "Thanks."

 _In the common room…_

The metal door to the common room hissed open easily. Sabine looked around the posh room, with large sofas holding several rebels. Raven was discussing something with Ahsoka, using his hands in very emotive ways. Kanan was with them too, along with… Rex? What? Sabine made a mental note to interrogate both Ahsoka and Rex later. Ezra sat tucked away in a corner, apparently talking to his mom.

"Sabine," someone said from behind her. Fairly impressive, considering that she was only about two meters into the room. She turned around quickly to see the speaker.

"Mother? What is it?"

"We need to talk."

Ursa Wren had a worried, slightly sad look on her face. Like some monster weight was on her shoulders, and she had no way to remove it. She led the way to a small little alcove in the corner of the room. It had two little bean bag chairs, and had quickly turned into one of Ezra and Sabine's favorite little hiding spots. It was kind of surprising that so few people actually knew it existed. But that could be attributed to the bookcase that jutted out of the wall, half concealing it from view. A small table was in between the two chairs, which was usually used more as a footrest than a place for holding items by both Sabine and Ezra.

Sabine flopped down into her chair, welcoming the fluffy exterior. Her mother sat down somewhat slower, on the edge of the chair.

"Sabine, I'm… I'm sorry."

 _Huh?_ "What for?"

"For… everything. Disowning you, not believing that the Empire used the Duchess against your will. For being a horrible mother. For not being your family. Everything." Ursa Wren had a wet line down her cheek.

"Mother, I thought we went over this. You had no choice."

"But I did! I could have helped you. But I didn't do anything!"

"Mom. Mom." Sabine got up and took her mother's shoulders, shaking her. "It was not your fault. It never was, and it never will be."

"I'm sorry… I'm so sorry…"

"Don't be. That was then. This is now."

* * *

"Ezra, I'm…"

"You're what?"

"I'm sorry, Ezra." Mira Bridger looked down at the floor, not willing to meet her son's gaze. "I was never there for you when you were growing up. If I had just been more careful, I could have been there for you…"

"Mom. Resisting the Empire came with a risk. You knew it then, and you know it now. So stop kicking yourself over it."

"I was never there for you, Ezra. And I'm so sorry…."

"I get it. You're sorry. But what if you hadn't resisted the Empire?" Ezra shook his head. "I might even be part of the Empire if you hadn't. Growing up on the streets let me see the Empire for who they really are. And it let me meet Kanan, Hera, Zeb, and Sabine, and… everybody. Without them, I don't think I would be living. Just… surviving. Existing."

"Ezra…"

"Don't you dare say, 'I'm sorry' again."

"Okay…."

Abruptly, Mira rose from her seat. "Thank you, Ezra. I thought I had failed you."

"You did the exact opposite."

"And now I know that. So thank you."


	16. Chapter 16: Bacta Battle, Part One

**_My wifi got knocked out for two days, so I'm a little behind on my writing. Normally, I would be drafting Chapter 17 by now, but I couldn't get onto anything online. My apologies. Anyways, I will now shut up and let you enjoy the story. Reviews are appreciated._**

 ** _-RebelliousWaffle_**

A new sense of purpose had come over the base at Gemena Six. Just an hour ago, Rebel intel had verified that Thyferra only had a small fleet orbiting, and all nearby systems had been scouted for Imperial reinforcements. There was nothing of any significance, just some Patrol Cruisers and Interdictors. Basic garrisons.

Operation: Lush Healer was greenlit.

Hera looked over the massive hangar to the base. Maintenance crews and technicians scurried about, performing checks on fighters sometimes and making little adjustments to others. Pilots stood near their fighters, or they were in the atmosphere, testing new weapon systems or making sure that the fighters and bombers were working well.

Seven Fang fighters flew back into the hangar, the silver paint glinting slightly in the lights of the hangar. They touched down gently to the far left of the hangar.

Following them, nine all-black X-Wings touched down. The pilots of the elite Black Squadron climbed down from their T-65Bs. One of them waved to a fellow pilot. The leader, a Nautolan named Tal Callypsio, strode off to the command center, his XO following behind him. She was a dark-skinned human female, named Ria Cyll.

A Togruta technician ran by, accidentally crashing into Hera as she sprinted. Both Hera and the Togruta fell.

"Oh, I'm so sorry!" the Togruta gushed, her montrals turning a deep black from a blush. Quickly, she scrambled to her feet, and she offered her hand to the Twi'lek general, who took it and stood up.

"It's fine, Talli. Now go work on your fighter, or whatever you were gonna do."

"Of course, Gen- Hera." Talli hastily corrected herself at a single wave of Hera's finger.

Hera observed the small woman scurry away for a few moments before turning back to the massive hangar that sprawled in front of her. It was easily over a mile long, maybe even reaching two miles in some areas. But her eyes settled on an impounded Imperial ship. And bad memories came back. Bad dreams, specifically. A certain bit of eavesdropping had revealed that she wasn't the only one.

In the terribly realistic dream, she and Kanan stood on top of a large sphere. They were startled by Ezra and Sabine nearby, as Sabine held a ship steady and Ezra waved them onto it. And the fuel cell caught fire, and Kanan blocked the fire with the Force. Hera ran forward to help him get off the fuel cell, but he pushed her backwards with the Force, back onto the ship, where Ezra caught her.

"Kanan!" she called desperately. Her eyes were watering as her Jedi kept the roaring flames at bay, and he looked deep into her eyes. And his eyes… they turned green. The original color of his eyes.

The flames became so hot that Hera turned away, against her mind's wishes. Her body just moved of its own accord. When she looked back, Kanan was… gone. Only orange and white flames remained.

"Thinking about your dream?" Sabine asked, walking up behind her. Hera jumped a little.

"Yeah. What do you want?" Hera responded. Sabine took out a holodisk and pressed it into her palm.

"A small little movie I think would be nice for you to watch." Abruptly, Sabine spun on her heel and walked away. "Oh, and the dream. Remember, Hera: it hasn't happened, and it won't happen."

Sabine had no idea how wrong she was.

* * *

Shara sat back in the pilot's seat, checking the rest of the pre-flight diagnostics. Earlier, she had fully familiarized herself with the controls of the RZ-1 A-Wing. She had left Ezra and Sabine with the _Starhawk_ , so they wouldn't have to be passengers to the battle. Sabine would operate the rear turret, and Ezra would fly the fighter. They would be part of Task Force Besh, which was comprised of fighters and bombers to eliminate enemy AA defenses so the Y-Wings could do what they did best. The airspace above Thyferra had been secured earlier, by jumping in two MC80s and trashing any Imperial dumb enough to stand in the way of the Rebellion.

"All wings, greenlight for phase two!" came over the comm. It was the signal to get to Thyferra and start turning Imperial facilities into slag heaps.

Ezra started up the engines of the _Starhawk_ , a tense excitement stealing over him, making his pulse race. He had been put in command of a squad of heavily modified T-65B X-Wings, all of which now fired tracking missiles. It was codenamed "Thunder Squadron," and both Ezra and Sabine knew why. They had been near the testing grounds for the missiles before. Before it typically came "Lightning Squadron," another specialized wing that excelled at making Imperial pilots 'misplace' their TIEs in scrap piles.

The few X-Wings made the ascent into space in under five minutes, a fairly slow time for Mandalorian fighters but the drop-off point for the X-Wings. After what seemed like an eternity, the wing was ready for hyperspace.

* * *

Hyperspace was rather pretty, Kara Blondshade mused as she piloted her X-Wing down towards the planet surface, following the squadron leader resolutely. A few klicks to the north of the entry point was a Imperial AA battery, which was hindering Y-Wing activities. The Y-Wings were clearing landing sights for the Rebels who would be landing soon. They had all done this in a very incursion-style manner, where if one wave failed, the next would just have to tough it out. They had another two hours to open up landing spots.

The Imperial AA was just a klick ahead now, and all fighters were reading concussion missiles in preparation for the strike.

Half a klick remained. Now all the fighters started diving, screaming through the atmosphere to take out the AA in a dive-bomber-style maneuver.

"NOW!" the squadron leader yelled over the comm. A concentrated _whoosh_ came from fighters all around Kara as the missiles sped away. They struck home on the batteries, turning them into towering mushroom clouds of smoke.

But the brief attack had not left the party unscathed.

"Sir, I'm having trouble staying together," Thunder Four, AKA "Kyte," reported. "I'm losing engine two!"

"Hang in there, Kyte," Kara responded. She got frantic calls in reply.

"I've lost Engines Two and Four! I'm going down-"

The transmission was cut short as Thunder Squadron heard a crash below them.

All of a sudden, Thunder Four, (nicknamed Corsair) called out sharply.

"Bandits, six o'clock level!"

The TIE interceptors were nearly ready to wipe out all that remained of Thunder Squadron.

That is, until Mak Glyen, otherwise known as Tracer, dove towards them with the rest of Lightning Squadron following behind. The TIEs were thrown into complete disarray by the sudden attack.

"Tag, get your squad out of here!" Tracer yelled to Ezra, using Ezra's other callsign.

"You just keep 'em busy, Tracer! Thunder Squadron, form up on me!" Ezra called back. The three remaining Thunders formed up behind Ezra, rocketing away from the killzone as Y-Wings dropped bombs from above, leveling a barracks and a small FOB. From far above, it looked like someone chucking stones into a green pond, except with orange splashes.

The atmosphere of Thyferra faded away as Ezra and the Thunders reached what none of them expected.

"That's the _Chimera,_ " Kara squeaked.

"No, it's not," Ezra responded. "So let's wipe it out."

Without another word, Thunders One and Two soared ahead, nearly matching the _Starhawk_ 's burst of acceleration. Kara gaped at her wingmates before matching the movement.

The fighters raced along the underside of the Destroyer, pulling up as they reached the far back, and kept going, just past the top of the command tower. Then, in a perfectly executed maneuver, they flipped upside down and accelerated downwards at an angle, pulling up just as they past the bridge shields.

And then all they had to do was fire.

The maneuver had placed them directly in front of the main control bridge of the one ISD present at the battle. Four concussion missiles streaked away from the X-Wings and the _Starhawk_ , rupturing the bridge of the ISD and sucking all command personnel into space.

The ISD was rendered useless by the absence of the bridge personnel. It floated derelict now. And the remaining TIEs were quickly being turned into tiny little molecules of dust.

The battle was won.

* * *

Ezra and Sabine stood on a podium next to the three remaining members of Thunder Squadron. Each of them were now a rank higher in the Alliance's hierarchy, due to, as Mon Mothma put it: "Meritorious bravery in the face of stressful and panic-ridden situations." Really, it boiled down to: Hey kid, you were super extra brave. Congrats, you get a medal.

Ezra and Sabine bowed to the audience and stepped down from the podium. They had gone back to Gemena Six, and now they were preparing to liberate Thyferra. "So, how's it feel to be a captain, cyar'ika?" Ezra teased lightly. Sabine smiled widely and clasped his hand in hers, entwining their fingers as they walked, stepping through a blast door leading to the hangar.. Truth to be told, neither of them enjoyed the public eye that much.

"Like normal, except a rank higher." Sabine responded. **(I have no idea if commander is higher or lower than captain. Google didn't help, so I took my best guess.)**

"Hey, did you hear that?" Sabine asked, probably referring to the awkward, young-ish voice that had said something like "I have no idea." It was quite confusing.

"Yeah, what is that?"

"Eh, whatever." Sabine continued walking. Without realizing it, her hand strayed towards her blaster as she neared a corner, a sixth sense alerting her to something not being quite right.

A shot rang out!

Quickly, Sabine ducked behind cover as the crimson bolt flew past her face, searing her skin as it passed.

Ezra ran up to Sabine. He drew his lightsaber, but didn't ignite it for some reason. There was no mistake; someone had tried to kill Sabine. Cautiously, Sabine poked her face out again, then withdrew it as another vermillion bolt streaked by. The tension in the air was palpable. Nothing in the Force told Ezra where his opponent was.

A small tug in the Force alerted Ezra to an additional danger, and then he and Sabine were flung backwards! A small round sphere came round the corner, beeping continuously.

"Chit…"

A brown-clad foot landed just inside of Ezra's vision. Looking up, he saw Kanan standing, one hand outstretched. A large _boom!_ came from down the hallway.

"Kanan! Get back here!" Hera called, somewhere behind them. Ezra got up to help his master, but Kanan tossed him backward. He landed painfully on Sabine, who let out a groan of pain. The blast door shut between them.

"Kanan!" Hera shouted. Ezra got up and looked at the blast door. Sabine keyed the panel, but the door wouldn't open.

"Haar'chak!" she cursed. "It's melted stuck."

"Let me fix that," Ezra growled, igniting his lightsaber blade and plunging the brilliant line of green energy straight into the doorway. He forced the blade in a circular pattern, making it very large. Then, he forced it open.

The hallway beyond reeked of burned rock. Hera stepped through the hole first, tears running down her cheeks freely. And, as Sabine stepped through the hole, followed by Ezra, she saw why.

Kanan lay, propped against the blast door, with horrible burns on every part of his body. His green shirt was partially gone, showing his shoulder and part of his chest.

"Kanan!" Hera cried out, rushing towards the broken Jedi. Ezra had a momentary flash of deja vu.

"Someone, get a medteam down to Hallway 223, stat!" Sabine called into the comm. She was noticeably desperate.

Then, tears came as she was blown backwards, a shard of durasteel from the blast door in her shoulder. It went straight into her armor, not hurting Sabine but ruining her intricately designed anooba.

Ezra's lightsaber had been deactivated a few seconds earlier, now he activated it again and spun the blade, deflecting a shot away from Sabine.

"Arue'tii." (Traitor.)

The word rang out like a sword being drawn from a scabbard. It came from the mouth of a man with red and white armor, as well as brownish-grey hair. It was close cut. The man's face was very square, with a heavyset nose in between two reddish eyes. His skin was a pale white.

"Saxon!" Ezra growled.

"Ezra," Saxon replied, distaste evident in his voice. "Stand aside and surrender. I might kill you quickly."

"As if that's actually going to happen," Ezra retorted with a fiery voice.

"Then you die!" Saxon shouted, leaping forward with a large vibroblade, bringing it down to cleave Ezra in half entirely.

Ezra raised his lightsaber in a block, just barely warding off the blow. He slipped one hand out and manipulated the Force to throw Saxon back.

The Imperial Mandalorian dropped to the ground, breaking his fall by landing on the nearest body. By chance, it was Hera.

As Saxon stood, Hera rose, fists balled in anger. She angrily drew her arm back, aiming to plant her fist straight into Saxon's armored midsection. It would hurt, but Hera didn't care. It wouldn't hurt her anymore than the explosion had hurt Kanan.

Her fist traveled quickly and quietly, in a little ark. Then, Saxon gasped as his breath was driven from him in one giant exhale.

"That was for Kanan!" Hera shouted venomously, preparing to drive a fist into Saxon's midsection again. As she did, she shouted again.

"This is for the Rebellion!"

Finally, Hera drew back her arm, hand still balled up, and swung as hard as she could. The hit sent Saxon spinning and snuffed him out like a candle.

"That," Hera whispered furiously, "was for me."

She stood over her fallen enemy, trembling with rage and adrenaline. Her fists were still clenched, but one of her shaking hands moved slowly and deliberately towards the blaster she always kept on her hip. She flicked the holdster open, drawing the weapon.

"Hera…" Sabine called in a warning tone. Hera still moved to shoot Saxon.

"Hera!" Ezra called, sharply this time. Still, Hera did not answer.

Both Ezra and Sabine knew they had to act, but they both felt like they were paralyzed. Like time stood still for just them, and the air they were trying to move through was strong, breathable durasteel.

As fast as he could, Ezra summoned the willpower to Force Push the gun out of Hera's hand. Sabine somehow managed to fire a sedative dart into Hera's neck. The Twi'lek pilot collapsed onto the ground, directly on top of Saxon.

A medtech hurried down the long hallway, seeing blaster marks and lightsaber cuts on the walls. As he rounded the corner, he saw a destroyed door, with five people beyond it.

Captain Bridger stood, his face looking pale, next to Captain Wren. Wren was fingering a blaster in one hand, looking down at a badly burnt human male figure that the medtech recognized as Kanan Jarrus. A young kid came running around the corner. Raven. He took one look at General Hera and immediately called back to the rest of his squad, which was mostly medics. He had discovered he had a talent for Force Healing, and since then he had been taking part in numerous combat medic positions. It helped him combat his darker emotions.

Several more medics came running in, carrying a stretcher. Raven gingerly used the Force to lift Kanan onto the white fabric. Ezra looked at his master for a long while as the medtechs began to rush him back to the medbay. Then, he turned to the crumpled forms of Hera and Saxon.

"What do we do with them?" Sabine idly asked, placing one hand on some handcuffs she had at her belt.

"Arrest Saxon. I'll take Hera back to the _Ghost_ ," Ezra answered. Sabine nodded, pulling Saxon over to his side and pinning his arms together with the binders.

Ezra began the drag to put Hera back on the _Ghost._ It took a very long time.

* * *

"Bombs away!" Ezra shouted, his squadron unleashing torpedos on their target. It was a vital Imperial comm relay, and with this gone, the entire grid would fall. All comms were routed through here.

At least, all _Imperial_ comms. The rebels on the planet had a large underground network of couriers and communications.

The dish split in half as the comm relay was hammered by Rebel torpedos, turning it into a massive slab of now-useless metal. Little flames licked the edges of the building. Quickly, he accelerated out of the hot zone, his squadron following behind him.

"Alright everybody, let's get back to base," Ezra commanded, referring to the _Meiji_ , the current capital ship of the Rebel Alliance fleet in orbit. His mind was anywhere but the mission, though, wandering back over the events of earlier in the day. Kanan was still in the medbay two days later, and everyone was starting to worry.

Even though the _Meiji_ was hundreds of miles in space, Mandalorian engineering was some of the best in the galaxy. The small fighters made the trip in about ten minutes. When they reached the hangar, transports were gearing up for the invasion. Ezra knew the general gist of the operation. These were the first attackers, the commandos. They would secure the main landing sites, followed by the vanguards and finally, the main army. The vanguard would help the commandos extend the landing sites. The main army was to march around the planet and not stop until every single person or vehicle or building with a Imp symbol on it was dead, captured, or destroyed.

Sabine stepped out of the gunner's seat behind the Starhawk, which was already plastered with little drawings of various things. Explosions, people, Rebel ships, Imperial ships, and so on. Some of them were just abstract art.

"Well, that was easy," Sabine commented. They had hardly run into a single TIE fighter on the entire mission.

"A little too easy," Ezra responded. The lack of Imperial presence had been stunning.

"Let's hope the occupation is as well," Sabine said, walking towards the briefing area. It was a large, central area, about ten minutes away from each hangar. Ezra looked around the large, circular room, with it's white and blue furnishings. Rebel leaders were crammed into the area. Everyone from Luke Skywalker to General Organa. This was the first full-scale invasion of an entire planet that Ezra and Sabine had taken part in. It was big.

The meeting was boring as usual, with lots of talk and very little action. Sabine didn't really pay any attention, instead deciding that Ezra could tell her anything she missed. Ezra was staring ahead intently, memorizing the plan. It was one of the subtle changes that Sabine had noticed about him in the past year. He was more attentive.

"And that's it," General Dodonna ended. "Section leaders, start getting everyone onto the transports."

Ezra stood up abruptly, startling Sabine, who had basically been bored to sleep on Ezra's shoulder.

"Wha-" Sabine cried out quickly, before her mind, working rapidly, cut through the fog of near-sleep. "Oh. Briefing over?"

"Yeah," Ezra laughed a little. "Come on. I'll explain on the way to the _Starhawk_."


	17. Chapter 17: Bacta Battle, Part Two

"Ready," Ezra whispered, his voice tight. The commandos behind him raised their weapons. The door slid open easily, a tribute to Sabine's slicing skills. No stormtroopers stood behind the door, so Ezra pointed forward. The commandos nodded and began to advance down the corridor, weapons drawn.

It was a small hallway, with two doors leading away from it on the far side. The team gathered around the door on the left hand side.

"Ready," one of the team reported.

"Command Center is just beyond here. Weapons ready," Ezra told them. Sabine sprinted down the corridor to join the team.

"Breach," she commanded. One of the team placed a charge on the door. It was designed to blow inwards, stunning defenders and giving the attackers a few seconds to breathe.

 _Ka-blam!_

The door exploded violently inwards. Almost immediately, the commando team was moving inside, taking aim at anything that seemed vaguely Imperial. Several blaster shots rang out, followed by plaster shells dropping to the floor with a clatter.

"Clear!" one of the commandos reported.

"Hardwire the clear signal. Then seal the doors shut. And send a message to the rest of the invasion force. This sector is mostly clear," Ezra called.

"Yes, sir!"

Sabine casually lifted her helmet off of her head. She held it by her side, leaning against the wall. While the TAC display of the helmet was nice sometimes, it tended to be more annoying when there wasn't anything going on. The constant displays got in the way.

"Credit for your thoughts?"

Sabine said nothing in response. Her thoughts were too far away, drifting along the timeline. Lothal, to Atollon, to Yavin, to Gemena Six, to here, inside an Imperial Command Center on Thyferra. How far they had come.

 _How far indeed._

And yet how far they still had to go. But, at some point, the war would be over. And what that would bring.

She had vague ideas about what would happen. Settle down somewhere. Lothal, probably. And build a house. And raise their children.

 _Children!_

"Hey," Ezra repeated, tapping Sabine on the shoulder.

"Hmm?"

"What are you thinking about?"

"I.. nothing really."

"The future?"

"How did you guess?"

"It's a super-common topic with you."

Sabine folded her arms, setting her helmet down by her side. "Alright, so I have."

"And?..."

"And I don't know what we're going to do. It's… I…"

Ezra lightly kissed the Mandalorian standing in front of him. "We'll figure it out, _cyar'ika_." It was eerily similar to the words he had uttered when Sabine had officially become his girlfriend. Almost a year ago.

Sabine sighed. "I know we will."

Sabine looked out the large bay window, onto the cleared ground in front of the complex. This was one of the main landing sites, and already several transports were touching down, bringing the vanguard forces into the invasion. T-2Bs floated down boarding ramps easily, orange and white paint glinting in the weak sunlight. A few minutes earlier, a rainstorm had passed, and now the grass outside was wet and the clouds still obstructed the light from the sun.

A few minutes ago, Sabine could have sworn that there had been a flash of purple-white inside the treeline, but there were a few purple animals on Thyferra. Besides, Ezra hadn't felt anything.

But Ezra could cloak himself, and it wasn't much of a stretch to think that others could do the same. It made Sabine shudder a little bit.

Turning away from the window, Sabine walked towards the barracks area. It actually consisted of a set of basic rooms, like cells, except they were more like bedrooms. The doors were also solid durasteel, not bars. They swished open noisily.

Simple furnishings, even spartan, were inside each and every room. Apparently, the Imperials figured that a simple bed, desk, light and dresser were good enough for commanders.

Quietly, Sabine sighed. She had deja vu now, from her time at the Academy. Back then, her artistic side had nearly shriveled and died. In the same way, it had also flourished, as she desired to paint everything she saw.

Oddly, she was struck with sudden inspiration when she thought about Skystrike Academy in particular. But it didn't have anything to do with Skystrike. As she moved towards her bed, she unconsciously pulled her sketchbook and began a small drawing.

Ezra walked in a few minutes later, looking at Sabine immediately. It was kind of cute, how the first person he saw in a room was invariably Sabine.

"Hey," he called gently. Sabine merely hummed a little in response. Casually, Ezra looked over her arm at her little sketchbook, where she was drawing… something. He couldn't really tell what.

 _Oh_ , Ezra realized. _It's the Ghost._

Specifically, it was a cross-section of the _Ghost_ , showing all the rooms and passageways. It was in incredible detail, and Sabine even took the time to draw little figures of the old crew.

"Nice," he praised Sabine.

"Look right here," Sabine responded, guiding his finger to a small painting in her room. In a small little heart, she had somehow managed to delicately write the words _Ezra and Sabine_ inside it. Even better, the heart was just barely inside a tiny starbird.

"Now, even when we're apart, we're together," Sabine said, her eyes glowing with happiness and pride at her work.

"Priceless, _cyar'ika_. Priceless," Ezra responded, kissing Sabine until neither of them could breathe.

"Alright, here's the mission. It's a occupied hotel with a huge amount of Imperial ammo inside. Sabine, Ezra, you two need to take your squad and _level it_. High Command doesn't care how," Hera told Ezra and Sabine. "It's protected by an energy shield, so we can't just bombard it from space. Nor can we take it down with X-Wings. And most divisions are battling other imp forces. Right now, you're our best shot."

Ezra nodded. He had no doubts as to whether or not Sabine would want to take down the depot; it would make one kark of a explosion.

"Alright, so we just walk in the front door?" Sabine asked cynically.

"That's where things get fun," Hera responded. "You need to find a different way in than that. The front entrance has about half a trillion guards."

"Alright, well, we'll get this done," Sabine said smiling.

"Here's schematics for the place. And guys," Hera said, seeing the two turning to leave. Her voice slowly trailed off. "Make sure… make sure you come back. I…"

Immediately, Ezra and Sabine stopped and turned around. "What happened?" Sabine asked quietly. Quickly, Ezra reached for his Force Bond with Kanan.

Nothing was there. How had he not noticed?

"Kanan… He…" Hera slowly collapsed into convulsing sobs. She braced herself against the wall, still struggling to stand.

Sabine walked briskly to Hera. Slowly, she brought Hera's arm around her shoulder and brought her over to a chair.

"Hera," Ezra said, sitting down across from her after arranging three chairs in a triangle. "We're here for you. You're sad about Kanan, right?"

"He… he's dead." The words had a painful finality to them. Sabine recoiled a little bit in surprise. Ezra's eyes widened incrementally. Hera buried her face in her hands.

"Hera, I'm sorry," Ezra started.

"I… I let him down…" Hera responded.

I know you feel like you let him down," Ezra commented.

"I did…."

"How?"

"I… I…"

"Exactly. You didn't. Now stop beating yourself up over it."

Sabine, sitting on one of the three chairs, reached over to her forlorn comrade. Her gloved hand held Hera's shoulder in a gesture of sympathy. "Hera… I'm sorry. I'm sorry Kanan died. But you can't just keep yourself in a sea of misery. Make his death mean something, Hera."

"Fight for him, Hera. Even if your no longer fighting for the Rebellion," Ezra added. Kanan's death made his resolve harden.

Hera looked at her _de facto_ kids. Ezra's look was hard but sympathetic, almost saying that she had to deal with what happened. And she did. Sabine's look was somewhere between pitiful and solicitous, or maybe even downright caring.

"It's just like I've lost something…" she started, but Sabine cut her off quickly.

"And what's lost can be found. Now please, stop crying about it."

* * *

 _Thyferra, Imperial Supply Dump 7, 0200 Hours_

* * *

"Alright, the depot is just up ahead," Ezra whispered to the rest of the team. It had a large wall running around the sides.

Crouched double, Sabine snuck to the edge of the wall, dropping to a knee when she reached it. Quickly, she scanned the wall.

"Duracrete. You'll be able to melt it, Ezra, or we can just scale it," she reported.

 _Scale it,_ a voice whispered in Ezra's mind.

"Scale it," Ezra repeated. The rest of his team nodded, each one quickly moving to press themselves against the wall. Mira placed her foot on Sabine's hands, which were interlaced. As she propelled herself upwards, Sabine pushed her foot up, adding extra force to her jump. Her hands grabbed the top of the wall, and she hauled herself up. A second later, Ephraim appeared next to her, having done the same thing.

Quickly, the two surveyed the Imperial compound beyond. A single stormtrooper was below the two, who crouched like wraiths.

"Fix suppressors," Sabine advised.

The two did as they were told, then Mira aimed at the trooper below them and slowly squeezed the trigger.

"Clear," Ephraim reported. The rest of the team quickly got to the top of the wall.

"Alright, Mira, Ephraim, you guys cover the exit. We'll need to get out of here quick. Kes, Shara, you guys plant the explosives on the outside and take down any guards you can, but do it discreetly. Sabine and I will plant explosives inside the building," Ezra quickly ordered. The others in the team nodded.

Silent as a mouse, the trio of teams crept to their objectives. Ezra and Sabine slowly moved towards the back entrance to the depot, keeping noise to the absolute minimum.

"Two guards up ahead," Ezra whispered. Sabine nodded in response. The guards casually walked closer, making awkward banter to pass the time. As they neared the corner, around which Ezra and Sabine hid, Sabine moved away from the wall in a flash of movement, putting both guards down in the space of a heartbeat.

"Let's keep moving," Sabine advised.

"Hide the bodies first," Ezra responded.

"Of course."

As fast as they could, the two put the two stormtrooper bodies in between two cargo crates. It was a place that few people would look and even fewer would go.

"Ready?" Ezra asked, pressing his back into the wall next to the rear door. Sabine nodded, typing furiously on a small terminal. Eventually, she hit enter, and the door slid open.

"Let's go."

The hallways were dark. Apparently, they were in some sort of service entrance. But, the hallways were still guarded, albiet sparsely.

"This door," Ezra said, pointing, "leads to one of the storage rooms. Can you get it open?"

"No problem, Ez," Sabine responded. Ezra groaned.

"So that's your new nickname for me?"

"It was either that or Ezzy."

Ezra's eyes widened slightly in horror.

The door opened with scarcely a sound. Sabine looked both ways before exciting, which was somewhat useless. Ezra would have told her if anyone, or anything, would be there.

Another door, across the hall, had only a single Force Signature within. Ezra pointed to the door. The meaning was clear as day to Sabine. _Breach._

Sabine put one of her pistols back into it's holdster and drew a charge. It was set to have minimal power, just enough to blow the doors lock without breaking anything else or alarming anyone.

She set the charge without anything unusual happening and passed the detonator to Ezra.

"I'll let you do the honors," she told him.

Ezra's thumb came down on the detonator. Nothing happened. And Sabine realized her mistake.

"Chit- run!" she cursed, grabbing Ezra's hand and pulling him along, her own shapely legs taking flight as she and Ezra sprinted from the doorway.

The door erupted into a fireball, knocking Sabine and Ezra off-balance. A section of the floor tore away from behind them, and gravity began threatening to pull them down.


	18. Chapter 18: Part 3: What is Lost

_**Two things to address before the story.**_

 _ **One: I found out that I had screwed up the chapters and I had posted Chapter 18 as Chapter 17. I fixed that problem a few minutes before writing this.**_

 _ **Two: Thank you, reviewers, for clarifying the ranks without sounding like jerks. Anyways, to explain to those who are confused by the ranks, in the Navy, captain is higher than commander. In the Army, it's reversed. I'm going to make things simpler for myself and use the Naval rankings so I don't have to change the status of Ezra and Sabine.**_

 _ **Reviews are appreciated. -RebelliousWaffle**_

* * *

A catastrophe is a series of smaller disasters that all happen at the same time, causing the entire sequence of events to look like one enormous disaster. And this one could not have happened at a worse time.

As Ezra was running from the explosion, he failed to notice a small outcropping. The outcropping hit his shoulder, making him turn slightly and lose his stride as his inertia was stolen from him. His tight grip on Sabine's hand loosened slightly, and his already sweaty palm slipped from his girlfriends tight grasp.

His gait slackened noticeably now, and he fell onto his chest as the floor collapsed behind him. Sabine barely had time to register his absence before she was at a window at the end of the hallway. But when she reached it, she turned.

"Ezra!" she called, her voice demanding. With a last bit of Force Power, Ezra pushed Sabine out the window. Unconsciously, she activated her jetpack and floated to the ground. Almost immediately, Kes and Shara were upon her. They had already cleared out all the guards on the ground floor, and were about to try and call Ezra and Sabine to ask them how the mission was going when the building erupted into a massive mushroom cloud of pitch-black smoke and orange flame.

"Ezra!" Sabine called again, anguished. Her helmet had fallen from her head and she had landed next to it. Shara looked at the young woman's face. A tear rolled down it.

"EZRA!" Sabine howled, making a primal sound. It pierced the air, making a sound that nobody could have replicated unless the same thing was happening to them.

She tore free of Kes's hand on her arm and rushed to the wreckage. But the intense heat from the flames buffeted her and eventually won, pushing her backwards. She dropped to her knees in front of the fire.

"No, no, no this can't be happening. No way… no…"

* * *

 _Unknown Place, Unknown Hour, Unknown Day_

* * *

 _Ezra wandered the vast expanse of white alone, without any direction as to where to go. He was in pain somehow, though he remembered nothing of what had happened._

 _All he remembered was his old family, with Hera, Kanan, Zeb, and in some ways Chopper. And Sabine, of course. He doubted he could ever forget her._

 _Her eyes, her hair, her body, her mind- he remembered it all. But not in a creepy stalker way, more just like… a memory of a friend. A very fond memory._

 _Anything else, like how he had gotten here, was shrouded in mystery and uncertainty. He didn't remember being transported here or being killed and winding up here. It didn't seem like an afterlife, nor any planet he knew of._

 _Something appeared on the horizon, getting closer quickly. A figure, of some sort, wearing green clothes that seemed to be badly singed. A memory floated to the surface of Ezra's mind. Kanan Jarrus._

" _My Padawan, why are you here, inside the Force?"_

" _I don't know, Master."_

" _Do you remember how you got here?"_

" _No, Master."_

" _Do you remember anything?"_

" _Very little."_

" _Forgetful, this boy is."_

 _A small green figure appeared, sitting on a rock. He had rather large ears, and a small cane._

" _Master Yoda."_

" _Master Dume. To Jarrus, you changed you name?"_

" _Yes, Master."_

" _Mmm." Yoda turned to Ezra, who was staring at the legendary figure in a mix of surprise and delight._

" _Knight Bridger. Have you any questions? Mmm?"_

" _Yes, Master," Ezra responded, delighted to finally have some answers. "First of all, where are we?"_

" _Inside the Force, we are."_

" _Does this mean… we're dead?"_

" _No, young one. Accessed this place while alive, you and I have."_

" _What happened to me?"_

 _Yoda looked at Kanan, who shook his head._

" _Unsure, we are."_

" _Is Kanan alive?"_

" _Mmm. Difficult to explain, it is. No and yes. In a limbo of sorts, he is."_

 _Tears pricked at the corners of Ezra's eyes._

" _Do not cry, Ezra. I can still come back. But I'll need your help."_

 _Quickly, Kanan told Ezra what he needed to do. As Kanan knelt, preparing to summon the Force, Yoda began to meditate, as well as Ezra. This was very risky for all involved, but it was possible for it to work._

* * *

Sabine clenched Ezra's hand tightly, looking at his scarred face. His hair was singed and his tunic torn, but his vital signs had stabilized a few hours ago. His heartbeat, however, made for grim news.

It wasn't steady. At times, it would spike, and at others it would slow down rapidly.

His eyes were shut tight now, like he was in severe pain.

"Captain, I need you to leave now. I'm sorry," a rebel medic told Sabine. She nodded sadly, with no energy to try and argue. She was on the verge of tears, as anyone could see.

Slowly, she trudged back to her room on the _Starhawk_. Her bunk seemed inviting now, and she moved for it like a sloth. Her body, once on top of the mattress, curled into a ball.

 _I can't cry. I can't cry for Ezra. Why can't I cry?_

Too many horrible things had happened over the past week. Kanan had died, and Ezra was now on the brink of death, too. Hera was able to cry. Zeb was able to cry. So why couldn't she cry?

Without really thinking about it, she found herself calling her mom and dad. Her dad was on Krownest, so he couldn't come. But Ursa Wren could.

* * *

"Sabine, my daughter, what's wrong?"

Sabine sat on her bunk, her knees drawn up and her face buried in her legs. Her arms were wrapped around the tops of her knees. Ursa sat down next to her child, looking at her with compassionate eyes.

"Ezra- he's… he's ne-nearly gone, a-and I… I-I can't… I can't do anything," Sabine choked out. "H-he saved me… and now, h-he…"

"Sabine, look at me, please," Ursa requested. This wasn't normal, fiery Sabine Wren. This was a broken Sabine, who needed help.

Sabine kept her gaze downcast. Silently, Ursa stroked Sabine's purple and blue hair.

"I can't cry, mom. Can you just tell me… why I-I can't… why I can't cry?"

"It's okay, Sabine," Ursa cooed softly. Sabine unfurled herself into a sitting position, with her head hanging low.

"It's okay, Sabine. It's okay. It'll be okay."

Sabine collapsed now, falling down onto her mother's lap. And she cried.

She cried for the injustice of it all. She cried for Ezra, she cried for Kanan's death. She cried for Hera, losing her near-husband and surrogate son, and for Zeb, who lost almost everyone he knew. She cried for her clan, who were now partially represented by particles on Mandalore. She cried for the cruelty of the galaxy, taking away her father figure and her boyfriend, even her intended. She cried for Alderaan, even. She cried for everyone that was subject to tyranny in the galaxy. But, all in all, she didn't cry for any one reason.

She just cried.

* * *

Ezra sat up with a gasp.

* * *

 _ **Muahaha, cliffhanger!**_


	19. Chapter 19: Part 4: Can be Found

Ezra looked around, mainly just to see where he was. Rebel medics looked at him, completely shocked. One moment, his heart rate was nil, and they were getting ready to break the news to his crew.

The next, his scars and burn marks were completely gone, and his heart rate was normal. He was sitting up like nothing ever happened.

"What…"

One medic, faster than the others, saluted respectfully. "Sir! Uhmm… this way, sir."

Ezra swung his legs off the bed. Inside his mind, he was replaying the events that had taken place while he was inside the Force. He had no idea if the ritual had worked. He had survived, so that was a good sign, but he had no clue about Kanan.

The medic led Ezra down a long, long hallway. Several times, Ezra saw security personnel moving through the hangar.

"Where are they going?" Ezra asked.

" _Captains Bridger and Wren, and Commander Skywalker, please report to the hangar at once,_ " the intercom shouted.

"What?"

"You.. ah… better get going," the medic stuttered.

 _Wonder what this is about,_ Ezra thought as he hurried to the hangar. A Imperial TL-1800 shuttle had touched down, and several rebels were holding guns, standing around a small group of people.

"What's all this then?" Sabine called, entering the hangar with Skywalker right behind her. The three congregated together as a rebel sergeant addressed them.

"Sirs, ma'am, these stormtroopers have arrived here and surrendered, attempting to join the Alliance. What should we do with them?"

Luke paced around the group, studying their faces. Something was oddly familiar about them…

"You. Have you ever been to the Selshea Sector? Served aboard the _Reprisal_ , maybe?"

"Yessir. Four of us. These other two were on Thyferra and saw you people doing…. Well, doing better things than the Empire."

"What makes you think we're going to let you in?" Ezra asked, one eyebrow arched.

"The fact that we have valuable intel on Imperial positions and tactics," one of the former stormtroopers replied, obviously a bargainer. Ezra's eyebrow stayed elevated.

"And what makes you think we don't already have your intel?" Sabine asked.

"You won't know if you do or don't until we tell you it. And we can choose when we tell you."

"Or, we could make you tell us…" Luke casually put in. Ezra glared at him briefly and took him aside, motioning for Sabine to follow.

"Do you believe them?" Sabine asked as soon as they were out of earshot.

"I do, actually. What about you, Ezra?" Luke responded.

Ezra looked back at the group of six unarmored stormtroopers. "I'm not sensing anything traitorous, but I could be wrong. We'll just have to see."

The three walked back to the group of troopers, trying to look impassive. Sabine spoke first.

"Well, let's get you back to the base."

* * *

"So, that was interesting," Ezra said, sitting down on the bunk. The stormtroopers had done the registration process already, but one of them had apparently known them. Ezra didn't know what he was talking about.

"What? Explaining why we had to put them in handcuffs while they met the Rebel leaders?"

"Yeah. What was that about one of them knowing us?"

"I.. ah…" Sabine hesitated. "You know how we raided the data complex on Thyferra?"

"Yeah."

"Do you remember getting shot?"

"Uhhh…. No?"

Sabine groaned inwardly. "Okay, long story short. You got shot, I nearly got captured,

and I ended up talking with a stormtrooper who didn't sympathize with the Empire's ideals. And he was one of the troopers who joined up."

"Okay," Ezra said, still not understanding entirely. Then, he abruptly stood up and motioned for Sabine to follow. They moved down the hallways quickly, leading to a Intensive Care room with several medics in it. They scurried around their patient, who Sabine couldn't currently see. Ezra seemed to know who it was, though…

"Ezra? Who is that, in the room?" Sabine asked quietly. Ezra held up a hand for silence and keyed his commlink.

"Raven, can Sabine and I come in?" he requested. The response was a garbled burst of noise that Ezra took as a yes. The door opened quietly.

"How's he doing?" Ezra asked Raven, who wore his normal clothes combined with a medic uniform. A white armband around his arm, with the medical symbol on it, was what signified him as a medic.

"I'm not versed in all his issues, but we've healed the vast majority of his burns and cuts. Right now, we've done all we can," Raven responded. "I think another day in a bacta tank and he'll be good."

Sabine looked over the man in the bed and had to stifle a rising scream of delight. "He really survived?" she asked Ezra. Ezra shook his head.

"No, he died. But now, he's alive again. It's… complicated. Just don't tell Hera about this," Ezra responded. "I'll explain more when we get back to the _Starhawk_."

Sabine cast one more look at the man lying on the bed, a mess of bacta patches on his face. Raven was giving Ezra a datapad.

"His eyes are still beyond conventional healing, but everything else was mostly just burns. My guess is if we can get a certified Jedi Healer, we can allow him to see again," Raven said.

"You mean Barriss can't help?" Ezra asked. Raven shook his head.

"She tried, but she wasn't able to. If you find a certified healer, it's possible. Unlikely, but possible."

"We'll take whatever chance we get."

 _Next day..._

Hera awoke numbly again. Her eyes were misted over as well. It had only been three days since Kanan died, and she was already feeling like she could never recover. Kanan's death left a hole in her life that she felt like could never be filled.

" _Hera? Hera, come in,_ " her comlink chimed. Only half thinking, she answered it.

"What is it?" Hera replied sleepily.

"Hera, meet me in the hold of the _Starhawk_ in twenty minutes." The comlink abruptly shut off.

Still half asleep, Hera got off the bed and ran through her normal morning routine. Cold water splashing across her back brought her mind out of the fog that always clouded it in the morning. New, warm clothes made her feel far better after toweling off.

Her mind casually drifted around topics. Last night, she had received a report about a string of riots in Thyferra's two main cities, Xuchpra City and Xozhixi. Apparently, Xuchpra City's riots had been quelled within a matter of hours. Xozhixi's riots had morphed into a full-blown revolution. Several Alliance slicers had managed to crack Imperial security and found out that a Imperial Grand Moff had been captured while visiting the city to help repel the Alliance's invasion, and was now being held at a undiscovered location, known to the Alliance as the Zohn-Agaki Mall Complex. The 'revolution' was, in fact, a Rebellion-orchestrated coup d'etat against the Imperial governor of Thyferra.

Apparently, it had worked, as Imperial comms on the planet had been scrambling reinforcements to Xozhixi. Rebellion-affiliated Interdictor cruisers (which had come from defectors, stolen plans and capturing) had cut off all comms with other worlds, ensuring that Thyferran officials could no longer bring in any Imperial reinforcements. They could only rely on their own garrison.

Then her mind drifted to Lothal. Resistance fighters, operating as a group known as "Lothal's Warriors," had somehow managed to throw off the Empire's yoke of oppression yet again.

The thoughts of Lothal Warriors brought her back to Thyferra; specifically, the Ashten rebels. Those Vratix had long been dissidents, fighting against the Empire. But several reports had come in about black Vratix attacking Alliance patrols, making High Command believe that they would not rest until Thyferra was a independent planet.

About fifteen minutes had passed so far. Hera sat down onto her bunk, almost unconsciously grabbing her datapad. She flitted through troop reports, sending several of the documents to other leaders.

 _That's interesting,_ Hera thought to herself as she studied a map of the Imperial headquarters. It had been swiped by a disguised droid roughly two days ago. But the bit that had drawn her attention was that the security room was placed nearer to the outside of the building, with several terminals inside the officers lounge. The officers lounge was on the outskirts of the building. Maybe if…

Unconsciously, Hera began to draw a battle plan. Frankly, it was more like a raid. But bitter experience had taught her the basics, and the more elaborate parts, of planning military operations. She was no ametur, either. She had once designed a raid that nearly captured a Star Destroyer, if it hadn't been for the captain to send it plummeting into the planet below.

Quickly, she tucked the datapad away in a back pocket as she checked the chrono. Four minutes had passed. Now she needed to get to the _Starhawk_. It would probably take about one minute.

Hera exited the _Ghost_ with one blaster in hand. She no longer trusted the base entirely, with several concerns about Imperial spies going around. It was just generally safer to walk with a blaster strapped to your thigh.

Thankfully, no one tried to kill anyone in the minute it took for Hera to reach the _Starhawk_. Ezra was standing outside the outstretched boarding ramp, fiddling with a scrap of softer metal.

"Hey, Hera," he said lightly to the Twi'lek pilot. "Sabine will take you to your present."

Hera walked up the ramp, finding Sabine waiting down the hallway, painting a cute little picture of a domesticated loth-wolf.

"Hi, Hera. If you would follow me?..."

Hera did as Sabine requested, following her into the cockpit of the _Starhawk_. Or, more correctly, to the door just outside of it.

"Okay, your present is just beyond this door. I'll let you be alone for now," Sabine said, walking away. With her curiosity burning, Hera opened the door and walked in.

* * *

 _A Twi'lek woman enters the cockpit of the_ Starhawk _, most likely brimming with anticipation. She sits down in one of the chairs. Slowly, one of the chairs turns around, revealing a green-clad, blind Jedi. He wastes no time, immediately launching into conversation._

" _Hey, Hera," Kanan says, smirking._

 _Hera falls to her knees, tears streaming down her face. "Kanan, is it…"_

 _Kanan kneels across from Hera, wrapping his arms around her quivering body as she stares at him, only half believing that he is alive. "It's me," he quietly coos. "It's me."_

" _Kanan… without you I've been…" Hera whispers. Kanan smiles a little bit, before slipping a small golden ring onto Hera's finger. Hera's eyes widen noticeably._

" _Dying really put everything into perspective, Hera. And now, I don't ever want to lose you again. Please, Hera… will you marry me?"_

Ezra looked at Sabine, smiling widely. "Tell me that was recorded."

Sabine nodded. "Yep."


	20. Chapter 20: Author's Note

So, because I haven't yet finished the next chapter I was going to upload, I thought of explaining what's been going on and how it's affecting my writing time.

So, first of all, snow. A lot of snow is getting dumped on me. So far, I have gone through four major storms with a fifth on the way. The weather is constantly taking out my power, and with it usually goes my wifi. I can't write without my wifi. : (

Two: (Just skip to the next paragraph if you don't want to be sad) My grandfather is very ill and probably about to die.

Three: Unfortunately, I do in fact have a life that I need to lead. I would very much like to bury myself inside of my fanfiction, but nooooo...

Four: I will post about this again when it is slightly more prominent, but over April Break I will be vacationing to Scotland, so that's probably going to make sure I have no free time whatsoever.

So, to make sure that nobody is super-duper depressed, I will say this: Thank you for all the nice reviews! You guys are so kind. Special shoutout to MaybeImARebel, who so far has left a 'good job' on every single chapter I've written, and Spectre6, who has also left very cute reviews, and Shard Radiant Paladin, who kindly explained if Captain was higher than Commander (It depends. If you're in the Navy, yes, Army, no.)

Finally, I've found that I need a time for certain things inside my universe, so (with MaybeImARebel's permission) I will be using his timeline, only a little more accurate: a day will be twenty-five hours, and a hour 60 minutes as normal. A year will be 365 days as normal.


	21. Chapter 21: Part 5: Urban Warfare

The _Starhawk_ touched down next to the _Ghost_ about a click away from Xozhixi, on a large ridge that overlooked the grasslands leading up to the city.

Or, more correctly, the wasteland leading to the city. Several squadrons of AT-STs had descended on insurgents a day earlier. Despite the incursion battleplan, the Rebellion still had to capture Thyferra. The quick landings just made it easier to surprise Imperial forces. And the Imperials could scramble reinforcements to defend key objectives still, such as Xozhixi.

Sabine looked out over the battlefield that was the plateau in front of them. AT-ST husks dotted the landscape, with a few trenches and buildings. Apparently, the rebels had managed to make some rudimentary defenses before being overwhelmed by Imperials.

Further on, flames licked eagerly at buildings. Very few things moved in the city, with the exceptions being collapsing buildings and AT-STs.

"I know that destruction is a part of warfare," Ezra lamented, appearing next to Sabine, "but I don't want this ever coming anywhere near Lothal."

"Neither do I, Ezra," Sabine responded. "But urban warfare is unforgiving. Just make sure you watch your back, and we should be fine."

As the two watched, a building had a large explosion under it and toppled to the side. The sounds of blaster fire followed, although the space in between delayed the noise.

"Looks like the rebels are attacking something," Sabine commented, using her rangefinder to try and see exactly what.

"Can you tell what it is?"

"No."

"Can you give a guess?"

"Imperials." The ill humor in the one-word response was unmistakable. Ezra wisely shut up.

A few minutes later, Hera called to the two young rebels.

* * *

Many battlefields that Ezra had been on had been chaotic. But they hadn't been so tense, and yet so, so…. Abandoned. So utterly un-battlefield-like.

A normal battlefield would have explosions and lasers flying everywhere. You wouldn't be able to hear yourself think. But this battle was quiet. Instead of the chaos of being surrounded by lasers, both Rebel and Imperial forces were surrounded by husks of buildings. Rubble littered the streets, and several times the Rebels noticed sharpshooters in the buildings. They wore all grey, and some had black visors. Once or twice, Sabine pointed out some E-Webs in the superstructures of several apartments.

A large building loomed over the rebels. It had multiple blaster marks on the outside of the building, and several of the walls bore cracks. Hera pointed to the left of the building, where there was a makeshift entrance.

The mood was less tense and more expectant as the group approached the small opening in a concrete wall. Nothing was moving, but that said nothing in an environment where there could be combat at any moment.

A small tug of warning appeared at the back of Ezra's mind.

A mile away, a Imperial sniper marked his target in his HUD and laid a finger on the trigger.

The Force pulled at Ezra's subconscious now, trying to tell him of danger. And Ezra's mind recognized the warning, although his body did not act on it. Instead, he strained his senses.

The sniper quietly squeezed the trigger experimentally. His gunsight was synced to his visor now, so he no longer had to put his eye to the gunsight.

Ezra's mind finally pinpointed the source of the disturbance, and he turned to face the direction of the danger.

At the exact same time, the sniper pulled the trigger.

When asked how he had done it, Ezra could never explain it.

Somehow, as the green bolt sped away from it's gunbarrel, Ezra, in the fraction of a second it took for the bolt to reach its destination, moved his head out of the way, drew his lightsaber, ignited it, and shoved Sabine out of the way as well. The laser hit the ground beyond the rebel group, kicking up some dirt.

"How did you do that?" Sabine asked, her masked eyes wide with disbelief.

"I have no idea," Ezra responded, equally awed with himself.

"We should probably get out of the open instead of talking," Kanan suggested, drawing his lightsaber.

"Good idea," Sabine responded, ducking as another bolt whizzed over her head. Moving in a crouch, she took cover behind a rubble pile.

"Oh, stars be damned," Ezra cursed as he looked over at a stormtrooper squad, followed by a AT-ST, tromping down the street. "Incoming!"

All at once, the stormtroopers took aim at the three visible rebels in the street. Hera dove for cover, and Kanan and Ezra turned to face the new threat. Kallus, Shara, Kes, Ezra's parents, and AP-5 had all stayed back at the ship. Nobody had any idea where Zeb was.

"Blaster magnet in the AT-ST!" Sabine called, popping her head out of cover for a second. Hera smiled at how willingly she used SpecForce jargon nowadays. **(Blaster magnet is SpecForce slang for an Imperial Officer.)** Her look hardened as several blaster shots hit the duracrete above her. These stormtroopers were accurate with their shots…

Quickly, Hera took a peek at the stormtroopers. One of them fell to a deflected blaster bolt and his armor changed color, turning… black….

"They're Storm Commandos!" Hera yelled.

"Great!" Ezra yelled back.

Sabine prepped one of her detonators and shouted, "This situation looks pretty hopeless!"

"So blow stuff up!" Kanan called back, happy to end the catchphrase, of sorts.

Sabine had a wide smile on her masked face as she chucked a detonator into the second row of stormtroopers. The resulting explosion blew the troopers off their feet and into the air, ruining the camo that they had applied. Several landed in front of the two Jedi standing in the street with a ugly cracking sound, their armor morphing from charred white plastoid to black, denoting blackhats, or Imperial Storm Commandos.

The AT-ST was still there, however. And it was laying down fire with a vengeance.

Now that was a peculiar sound. Like a whine of a rocket, but dimmer. No, it was getting louder now…

A rocket streaked overhead, smashing into the AT-ST's head!

The walker shuddered under the impact as another rocket hit it, blowing off one side of the head and damaging the servos of one of the legs badly.

"For Thyferra!"

Several black-clad rebels jumped from the burned-out skeletons of apartments that surrounded the small skirmish. They bore the classic armament of urban rebels; that is, whatever they could get their hands on. DL-44s, stolen E-11s, A280s and DL-17s all fired as the new warriors lept from rooftops.

Several of the new combatants hit the road as two landed on the AT-ST. Scrambling to the side of the wounded walker, they tossed a EMP charge inside and detonated it, sending a electromagnetic shock throughout the walker. Almost immediately, the rebels drew fusion cutters and severed the few remaining bits of durasteel that held on the leg, sending it crashing to the ground violently.

The dust was still settling as one of the rebels approached the two Jedi that stood in the road, awestruck by the unorthodox (albeit very effective) tactics.

"Corporal Jeheman Karda, Thyferra Rebels," the black Rebel reported. He wore a grey mottled watch cap, with a black shirt and a grey vest over it. High on his right shoulder was his rebel insignia, marking him as a member of the UCS (Urban Combat Specialists.)

"Hello, Corporal. I'm Commander **(?)** Kanan Jarrus, Phoenix Two Squadron," Kanan responded.

"Well, hello, Kanan. Let me show you to our base."

* * *

The road was long and winding. The rebels were quite weary when they reached their destination, a mall on the western side of the town. With a soaring ceiling, the mall might have been a very nice tourist attraction in peacetime.

Of course, it was wartime, so now there were twin E-Web turrets pointed at the doorway, with crews manning them- presumably twenty-five hours a day. They also carried the usual assortment of weapons. However, as they descended to the group's headquarters, they began to see more elite guards, including a impressive-looking pair sporting CR-2 blasters.

Both guards saluted as the group entered the HQ. The Spectre rebels caught their breath as they entered.

It was like a miniature version of Gemena Six, but everything was in one room. Obviously, it had been a vault earlier, but now comm gear and tactical displays crowded metal tables. A small elevated podium had a holotable on it, which had three figures crowded around it, watching something intently.

Corporal Jeheman led Hera, Kanan, Ezra and Sabine towards this group confidently. Obviously, he was only a Corporal in name, as the troops all greeted him respectfully, several casually saluting by touching one or two fingers to their forehead. A couple called out friendly greetings.

"You're obviously respected here," Hera remarked. Jeheman just nodded.

 _Maybe it's because he's a UCS,_ Sabine thought. Ezra nodded, as if he had heard the thought.

The three leaders of the Thyferran Rebels looked up as the group of four stepped onto the small platform. It was kind of like a dais, actually. A taller Vratix was the first to react.

"[Hello. I am Shakra,]" the insect-ish sentient greeted. A Bothan, standing next to him, translated and announced himself as Mithuni. The third figure was a Human called Khuri.

"Hello, Shakra, Mithuni, Khuri. I'm Hera, and this is Sabine, Ezra, and Kanan," Hera responded. The Lothal Rebels greeted the newer rebels as their names were called.

"Thyferra is finished with Imperial rule!" Khuri said. "We should be allowed to govern ourselves, without a mythical figure millions of miles away!"

"We have devised a plan to remove the Imperial governor from the city, along with the government building, but we cannot execute it without external help," Mithuni announced. "Specifically, we need several people that are able to handle Permacrete Detonators with precision and efficiency, as well as people to protect them as they work.

"We might also need some people to provide air cover, as we will stage a distraction that will hopefully draw Imperial attention away from the main government building. A squad here," Mithuni pointed to a small holomap of the city, with the section he was referring to bathed in red light, "should provide sufficient cover for the pyrotechnicians to work their… how do you humans call it… 'magic.'"

"Do you need anything to help carry this out?" Kanan asked, mostly out of politeness.

"We only need a team to set detonators here. My people will take care of the rest," Mithuni replied.

"Do you have the detonators for the team?" Hera asked. Shakra nodded his insect head.

"[We only need volunteers,]" the Vratix said. Sabine immediately raised her hand.

"Before anyone volunteers, we need to know what we'll be wading into," Kanan put in. Slowly, Ezra pushed Sabine's hand down.

" _If we go on a suicide mission,_ " he whispered, " _I don't want you going._ "

" _You honestly think you could stop me from going?_ " Sabine whispered back.

" _At the very least, I could make it very, very hard. I love you too much to let you throw your life away,_ cyar'ika _._ "

Sabine's shoulders, temporarily inflated with anger, slowly fell back down. " _Ezra…"_

Ezra saw his girlfriend concede and kissed her quickly as a reward. " _Thanks._ "

"Basic Imperial garrison, nothing unusual. There have been vague reports of some sort of malignant Force-user, but I don't think that they're actually accurate," Mithuni responded. Ezra and Kanan shared a quick glance. _Any_ reports about unusual, Force-related activity were usually not a good sign.

Sabine and Hera were oblivious to the silent look. Sabine, however, raised her hand again, volunteering for demolitions duty. She cast a look to Ezra, who simply nodded.

"[You volunteer?]" Shakra asked. Sabine nodded.

"I'm good with a blaster, and I'm also the resident explosive expert on our teams," Sabine explained, with a tone tinged with pride that all she had to do was state simple facts.

"I'm going with her," Ezra added. Sabine smiled a little. Her thoughts were obvious. _Of course you are._

"[Very well. We will give you a debriefing on a holodisk in an hour,]" Shakra ordered.

"We'll be ready," Sabine responded.

* * *

 _Outside the HQ, inside the main lobby of the mall…_

* * *

Sabine continued dragging a very, very willing Ezra up stairs to the third level of the mall, in attempt to find a turbolift or staircase to the roof. Everywhere the young couple looked, they could see the remains of warfare, like shattered glass scattered across pathways and some periodic piles of rubble on the upper levels. Dust littered everything in this dystopian world.

" _Haar'chak_ ," Sabine cursed, turning the corner to see the walkway ending abruptly in a sheer drop to the ground floor, roughly thirty feet down. A hole in the ceiling told the two rebels that some of the roof had given way, and had ripped off the walkway as it plummeted downwards.

"That's quite the drop," Ezra commented, not helping.

"I know," Sabine responded irritably. Ezra nearly made the fatal mistake of smiling. Sabine was even cuter when she was angry.

 _Cute doesn't go with her, though. Something else. Not cute. More like…._

Mentally, Ezra smacked his forehead. He knew there was a word that summed up Sabine perfectly, but he couldn't quite place it. It was dancing on the tip of his tongue, tantalizing him. Infuriatingly so.

"Alright, what's bugging you?" Sabine asked.

"What?"

"Something's annoying you. What is it?"

"How can you tell?"

"Your brow furrows. It's really noticeable."

Ezra had to consciously remind his jaw not to drop to the floor. _Sabine knows me better than I know myself._

It really shouldn't have surprised him; he was notoriously slow on the uptake of these sorts of things.

"Alright, so I am. What about it?" he finally asked.

"What is it, and how can I help?"

"Oh, just a word. It'll come to me."

"What is the word being used for?"

"Description of you."

"In that case, the answer is, 'beautiful,'" Sabine said, smiling a little. Ezra also smiled, and began to lift Sabine up with the Force.

"Ezra? What are you doing?" she asked worriedly.

"Well, you wanted to get over to the other side, right?"

"Yeah, but I didn't want to be terrified while doing it!"

"You don't have to, _cyar'ika_. I've got you." Gently, Ezra set Sabine down on the far balcony. She looked back at Ezra and muttered something.

Ezra, gently using the Force, leapt from his balcony to Sabine's, who crossed her arms and muttered, "Showoff."

The two continued walking, coming to a stairwell. Sabine motioned to it and led Ezra upward, to the top of the building. A locked door was in the way, but Sabine bypassed the (for some reason, electronic) lock easily.

A cool breeze brushed the two rebels as they moved to the edge of the building, fingers laced together. If it wasn't for the destruction surrounding them as the two sat down, the view would be quite pleasant.

But, like many planets, the war scarred the landscape.

Not that Ezra or Sabine were actually looking at the landscape. They had better things to do. Specifically, kiss each other, occasionally pausing to breathe.

Until Sabine produced a holoprojector. From about ten feet away, as I will tell this story so I don't spoil future plot surprises (you're welcome to those who are thanking me. Ha ha to those who are cursing me.) you could see very little of what was going on. A few minutes later, a Rebel, wearing all black aside from a grey helmet and grey Infiltrator gear.

As her (horrible) luck would have it, she entered right as Ezra and Sabine kissed again… and again.

Delicately, the unfortunate Infiltrator laid a disk behind the oblivious couple and retreated to safety.


	22. Chapter 22: A Lot of Fighting and Fluff

_**Oh my god, this took a while to write. I am so sorry that it took so long. Anyways, the snow that is blanketing my house is finally melting, so hopefully no more wifi crashes.**_

 _ **Enjoy. I took way too long to write this.**_

 _ **-RebelliousWaffle**_

* * *

In theory, it was a simple plan.

Not in practice. And the one time it mattered was in practice.

Sabine crouched behind a low barrier as blaster bolts pinged off the front. A explosion tossed dirt onto her. She shook it off and popped out of cover, just in time to catch a stormtrooper doing the same. Except he didn't shoot first.

Sabine ducked back into cover next to Kes, who was currently laying down a field of fire so Mira could try and eliminate the opposing troopers with a grenade.

Mira ran from cover to cover in short bursts until she was roughly in grenade range. Keying the explosive and starting the countdown, she tossed the detonator behind the cover that a few troopers were sheltering behind.

A blue-and-orange explosion tossed four bucket-heads through the air. Mira moved up to the rubble they had been sheltering behind and poked her head out.

She was rewarded with a close call with death, a blaster bolt whizzing by murderously. Firing blind, Mira tossed her sidearm to Ezra, who blasted a stormtrooper that had managed to knock his lightsaber out of his hand. He called it back to his hand with the Force, then ignited it and returned three bolts to their sender with it. Quickly, he moved behind a wall and fired off a few shots to discourage any stormtroopers who were brave/foolish enough to attack.

A enemy trooper put a hand to his neck as Ephraim slashed his knife across it, opening a wound from which red blood flowed. Spinning around a corner, Ephraim fired twice and then dropped to the ground to avoid a vermillion shot from some lucky shot's blaster.

Shara was engaged in a fistfight with a stormtrooper, currently throwing a punch that missed. The trooper, who had committed his base to the punch, stumbled, and Shara sucker-punched him in the gut. Next, she formed her hand into a knife and karate-chopped the troopers neck, making him fall to the ground in pain. He unfortunately landed on a dropped detonator, which exploded and nearly took Shara with it. She dove away from the searing heat, the only Rebel casualty being part of her frizzy hair and the flight jacket she was wearing.

"What's our Plan B?" Raven shouted. He had been assigned to the mission, but had been preoccupied while the rest of the Rebels got to the HQ. He had been given brief orders when he got there, and proceeded to begin to help the Rebels.

"Shoot or stab or otherwise destroy anything that tries to kill us!" Shara shouted back, her humor still intact, even if her hair wasn't.

"We still need to complete the mission!" Sabine added. "I still have the detonator, and the target area is only a klick away!"

"We're not invincible, Sabine!" Kes yelled.

"That doesn't mean we can just shy away from our duty!"

"Whatever we do," Ezra put in, "We need to do it fast! There's three TIE Bombers heading our way!"

"They'll hit their own men!" Mira called.

"They'll hit us, too!" Sabine countered, dropping a random stormtrooper that had just come round the corner. His white armor made a ugly cracking sound as it hit the road.

"Just take cover!" Ephraim ordered as proton bombs began hitting the ground, sending everyone flying back.

* * *

Sabine woke lying on top of Ezra with her ears ringing.

Her blasters were not in their holsters, nor in her hands. Bo-Katan had given her the Darksaber for a while after becoming Manda'lor, but she had returned it. Now, she was pretty much unarmed.

A T-visor loomed over her clouded vision. It wasn't a normal T-visor either. It was in the Nite Owl model. And it was yellow, with lines of grey on it as well.

Sabine blinked, and noticed that her helmet wasn't on her forehead anymore.

"Sabine, if I didn't know what happened, I would yell at you to explain yourself right this instant."

"Mother?"

"Daughter."

Ursa Wren removed her helmet and tucked it under one arm. She then used her other arm to pull her child off of of Ezra.

Sabine stood, wobbled, and fell back down, disoriented. Her vision clouded again. Slowly, she got up, holding her mother's hand tightly. Ezra stirred a little, then fell back into unconsciousness.

Still hindered by a cloudy mind, even if her vision had cleared, Sabine laid two fingers on Ezra's neck, checking for a pulse.

"He's alive," she finally said, with a audible sigh of relief.

"Of course he is. He's been training with you," Ursa responded.

"Good point."

A Fang Fighter thundered overhead, followed by two others. Explosions came from far off.

"What did we miss?" Sabine asked.

"Not much," Ursa answered with a shrug. "Once you were reported as M.I.A, a all-Mandalorian unit was dispatched to try and find you. We found you about two hour after you got knocked out, completed your mission, and now around seventy-five percent of our division is engaging all Imperial forces in and around the city. Tristan is commanding a unit that's pressing the attack on the main citadel in the city. In other words, basically all of Clan Wren is on Thyferra, and 99 percent of us aren't sleeping on top of somebody. So get a move on!"

Sabine scrambled to her feet, gavaltailized by her mother's shout- and promptly fell back onto the pavement as a flaring pain came from her ribs and right leg.

"Aaahhgggk!" she called out as she hit the ground. Immediately, Ursa's hard expression softened, and she called for a medic.

"What happened?" the team medic, Max, asked as soon as he reached the two.

"I have no idea," Ursa said. "She just stood up, then fell and started screaming."

"It's my leg," Sabine groaned, lying on the ground face up. The medic ran a small scanner over the area and winced when he saw the readout.

"Yeah, your leg is…" he started, not able to put it into simple words.

Ursa looked at the scanner, winced, and put it as bluntly as she could. "Your leg is fractured, Sabine. As in, right now, if I'm reading this correctly, and frankly I hope I'm not, the bone inside of your right leg is in four different pieces."

 _Way to put it gently_ , Sabine silently cursed as she heard the news.

"Don't put weight on it," the medic advised as Sabine shifted.

"Thanks for the obvious," Sabine said through gritted teeth.

"Just trying to help."

Pain rushed throughout Sabine as her attempt to sit up was brought to an end by a fresh spasm of agony from her midsection. She screamed again, and mercifully lost consciousness.

* * *

 _Captured Imperial Base, Thyferra_

 _A week after the Liberation of Thyferra_

* * *

Ezra woke with a cloudy mind. He felt around for Sabine, who would usually be lying next to him, sleeping allurdly in whatever milky sunlight came into the relatively spacious room.

A momentary panic came over Ezra as his hands found no body. But, as realization dawned on him like light on a new day, he remembered that Sabine was resting in the medbay right now, with a comminuted fracture in her right leg. **(Comminuted fracture is where a bone splits into more than three parts.)**

"Hey, Ezra. Wake up," Ahsoka said, shaking Ezra lightly.

"I'm awake, I'm awake," Ezra responded.

"Get dressed. I need you to train Raven for a bit."

"Why?"

Ahsoka sighed. "One of my contacts has gone missing while chasing rumors on Nar Shaddaa. High-profile contact. I need to go alone, so I can't take Raven."

"Okaaaay…. What do you want me to do with him?"

"The basics. But place a special emphasis on hand-to-hand combat and meditation. When he's in combat, he tends to get a bit… dark."

"Okay."

Ahsoka started for the door, then turned. "Oh, and Kanan and Hera's wedding is tomorrow. Just FYI."

"I didn't forget, you know."

"Just making sure."

Ahsoka left the room, leaving Ezra to get ready for the day. She walked back to her room, grabbing a small picture off of her bed and went to the infirmary to give it to Sabine.

Sabine lay in her white infirmary bed, peacefully sleeping. Her leg was healing nicely, and she would likely be able to walk unaided within a month. Right now, she had another day of bedrest before she would be allowed to walk around the base with crutches.

She wouldn't be able to take part in combat until her leg was completely healed, however, which nobody wanted to tell her.

Ahsoka placed the gift on Sabine's bed stand and left for the hangar.

Ezra walked out into the field where he had agreed to meet with Raven. The dew on the grass glistened, the dull sunlight reflecting off the water.

A minute passed. Then two.

Ezra looked around and saw nothing. Raven was nowhere to be seen. Stretching out with the Force, Ezra felt nothing.

No, wait. There was something dark, closer to the base.

Blindly, Ezra followed the path that the light charted for him, leading him towards the darkness.

And… a lightsaber clash?

Ezra broke into a sprint, the combat firing his imagination of what was happening.

As he rounded the top of the hill, he saw Raven, lightsaber drawn, in a standoff against a man with purple lightsabers.

Drawing his own blade, Ezra ran down the small hill, jumping the last few meters to add extra impetus to his strike.

Almost casually, the cloaked figure flicked his hand at Ezra and sent him flying, crashing to the ground painfully.

Raven spun and brought his lightsaber up diagonally, but the cloaked figure parried the attack and put in a startlingly fast riposte, nearly stabbing Raven in the chest. Raven danced to the left.

Ezra rolled backwards to get up and keyed his comm. "Security, level 5 risk on the Northern-"

His call to the base was cut short as his comlink was ripped from his gauntlet and mangled with the Force.

"Haar'chak!" he cursed. Hopefully, the base had gotten his message.

"Your friends cannot save you, Jedi," the cloaked figure rasped. Their hood had fallen, revealing a all-black helmet that masked everything about this person's face. Obviously, it was designed so the identity of the wearer would be a well-kept secret.

"I do believe they can," Raven responded, blasting the cloaked figure with a Force Push. The mystery person responded with a Force Push of their own, blowing Raven into the air. Catlike, Raven landed back on his feet and charged, slashing his lightsaber as Ezra cut horizontally at the attacker. The unproven Sith blocked both attacks, but focused on Raven, bringing both lightsabers down in a crushing downstroke. Had it hit, Raven would be split in half, but Raven spun to the side and brought his saber down onto the Sith's neck, decapitating him with a scream of fury.

 _Woah,_ Ezra thought as Raven deactivated his lightsaber, his entire body shaking. Whether through rage or adrenaline, Ezra had no idea.

"Hey, Raven, calm down," he advised. "Calm down."

Raven was still shaking, but now he wasn't furious. He was depressed. Slowly, tears rolled down his cheeks.

"Ez-Ezra…"

"Hey, it's okay, Raven," Ezra comforted, putting his hands on Raven's convulsing shoulders and kneeling.

"I just killed him… without a second thought," Raven sobbed.

"And if you hadn't, he might have killed you. You acted in self-defense, Raven. There's nothing wrong with that."

"But.. I, I KILLED him!"

"And you're not the aggressor here. Now, let's meditate," Ezra comforted. He knelt on the grass, unobtrusively using the Force to move the dead Sith away. Raven copied his position, closing his eyes and breathing deeply.

Within minutes, Raven was calm. His breathing was even. Ezra sensed a couple people approaching and left Raven to meditate by himself.

The small security force had come within about fifty feet of the group. Five SecForce troopers with DH-17s had worried looks on their faces. "What happened?" asked one.

"There was a Sith warrior that attacked us. Raven killed him. You can take the base off of alert," Ezra explained quickly.

"Yes, sir!" the guards responded, saluting and turning to go back to the base.

Ezra went back to his place with Raven. Raven hadn't moved, or even shown any sign of awareness to the outside world.

"You're back," he muttered.

"You alright?" Ezra asked. Raven nodded.

"Yeah, I'm alright."

"Good."

The two Jedi sat in silence for a few more minutes. Finally, Ezra got up and drew his lightsaber. He didn't ignite it, however. "Sparring?"

"Sure," Raven responded, getting up and drawing his own blade.

The two combatants circled each other, waiting for the other to make a move. Eventually, Raven's impatience got the better of him, and he attacked quickly. Ezra blocked his horizontal strike and countered by sliding his lightsaber blade down to where Raven's yellow saber began and moving inward, crowding him. Raven disengaged and jumped back, resolving to not let Ezra do that again.

* * *

 _Captured Imperial Base, Thyferra_

 _A week and one day after the Liberation of Thyferra_

 _Day 235, 0.5 ABY_

 _11 Hours_

* * *

Sabine smiled happily as she looked around the grassy valley, with around twenty people moving around two tables. The tables themselves were covered with white cloth. Kanan and Hera were back at the _Ghost_ , but Sabine had told Zeb and Kallus to make sure that they didn't see each other until Hera was walking down the aisle.

Mon Mothma had been kind enough to officiate the ceremony, and now she was walking down to the valley from a Rebel FOB **(Forward Operating Base)** about ten minutes away. With a speeder, it was barely five.

Of course, with an entire planet to police, there were going to be some Imperial sympathizers, so Rebel Command had set up several guard stations around the valley. The leader of the entire Rebellion was here, after all, along with most of High Command. SpecForce snipers were set up at the edges of the valley, both facing inwards and out, to pick off any threats. Anyone with a gun drawn in the crowd would be given one warning shot. Then, they would be on the ground.

Several turrets had been set up out of sight of the wedding ceremony, but in clear view of any attackers. Each was manned by two Rebels and had a trench with six Heavy Weapon Specialists (HWS) inside the trenches. A full division of SecForce troopers was on standby and could be dropped into combat within a minute, and all of the wedding guests were armed as a matter of habit.

All in all, nobody had any reason to feel uneasy at the wedding.

Sabine didn't have any particular role in the wedding, other than to read a bit about how she felt about Kanan and Hera becoming husband and wife. She was also going to be in the main processional, as she was considered Hera's honorary daughter. She had been granted freedom from bed rest for the day, but she had to walk around on crutches for the wedding. _Not_ fun.

Still, better than being unaware of what happened.

Ezra walked up beside her, sliding an arm around her waist. It felt so natural now. Her gaze tilted upward to Ezra's grinning face.

"How's the leg?" Ezra asked.

"Broken," Sabine responded.

"No kidding. Are you going to be speaking?"

"Yeah. Also, I'm in the processional."

"Same."

Catching sight of one of the wedding organizers needing help, Ezra quickly kissed Sabine and went to offer his help.

Sabine caught herself sighing. Ever since Ezra's near escape from the Star Destroyer over Lothal, nearly dying as the Purrgil dragged the _Chimera_ away, she had seen him in a new light. She had finally realized that Ezra wasn't just her friend. He was so much more. Still a friend, yes, but a confidant, a warrior, a _husband…_

Mentally, Sabine smacked herself. _I'm only nineteen. Too young to be married, Sabine._

But how old was old enough? Twenty-one? Thirty? Fifty? All Sabine knew was, at some point, she and Ezra were going to be together. Someday, he was gonna give her that ring.

But not today. Today, it was Hera and Kanan's special day. And if anyone even attempted to screw it up, woe befall them.

"Hey, Sabine, could you help me with something?" Wedge called, making Sabine turn around. He was setting up a shield generator on the opposite side of the valley. Precaution to bombers, because that was exactly the type of cheap shot that the Empire would try.

Sabine ambled over, her crutches still an impediment to movement. She hadn't been entirely happy with having to use them for about the next month, and even worse she had been banned from combat for the next month as well.

How the medic regretted telling her that…

The shield generator was using the wrong power conduit. In the event of an emergency, the shields had to be put up in one or two seconds, and this generator was taking about thirty seconds. Even worse, this particular generator was the one that was going to be assigned to shield Hera and Kanan, along with the officiant and the front two tables- which, of course, would be filled with close friends of the bride and groom. Because of the high positions that Hera and Kanan held in the Alliance, they were naturally going to be filled with high-ranking Alliance officials.

It was a simple problem, though. Simple enough that Wedge should have been able to fix it easily.

"So, why did you _really_ call me over?" Sabine asked, interested to learn the reasoning behind the request.

"I need a bit of help with something…" Wedge said, his voice tinged with a little bit of hopelessness but at the same time kind of rosy.

* * *

 _12 Hours_

* * *

Kanan caught his breath and only just managed to keep his jaw from dropping to the floor. Ezra was wide-eyed. Even Sabine took a few moments to be impressed.

Hera looked radiant.

She had on a white sleeveless dress, the hem of which fell to around her ankles. Her lekku hung exposed, but her head had a silky white headdress that reminded everyone about her flight helmet. She had on the smallest amount of eyeliner but liberal amounts of lipstick.

She glided down the path like a goddess, demure and yet not, to the small raised platform that would serve as the place where Kanan and Hera were wed, then sat down at one of the tables next to Kanan and waited.

Mon Mothma took the speakers platform and waited until the audience had released the breath they drew when Hera strode down the aisle.

"Thank you all for coming," she said, her quiet voice amplified by a microphone. "I know it must have been rigorous for some of you." She nodded to Cham Syndulla. He had come all the way from Ryloth to witness his daughter's wedding. "We're here to celebrate one of life's greatest moments: marriage. When you finally are done with the whole 'let's just be friends' thing." The assembled rebels cheered at the small bit of informality. "I personally think that Kanan and Hera are a match made in heaven. Hera, our devoted general, and Kanan, our blind, but still alive, Jedi. These two were some of the original Rebels, their resistance operations dating back to before the Declaration of Rebellion. And they were pivotal in all major operations that have taken place, ever since Yavin Four fell.

"Since then, I have seen them attack Imperial transports, blow up comm relays, and lead bombing raids. They have stayed back and commanded frontline forces, and they have taken part in skirmishes and campaigns even when things looked as bleak as possible. And, through it all, they have done it all together. I can see no better husband for Hera, nor a better wife for Kanan. Godspeed."

Mon Mothma stepped down from the podium, gesturing for the first reader to come up and read what the marriage meant to them. Cham Syndulla went up.

"Alright, well, I didn't really prepare anything long. Here goes nothing.

"At first, I met Kanan with a small amount of apprehension. I knew that Hera was in a relationship with him and thought of him as a good person, but I was reserving judgement. I soon found out that I shouldn't be worried.

"Now, as I look at Kanan in his traditional Jedi robes and Hera in a wedding dress, I have mixed feelings. I'm happy for both of them, as they seem to be happy with each other, of course. But I'm also sad. Marriage can be both a blessing and a curse. And, in a war when anything can happen, it might be more of a curse. There is nothing in this galaxy more painful than the loss of a loved one.

"But looking at all the Rebels here, I have hope. Hope that Hera won't be widowed, or vice versa. Hope that maybe, someday, we will have the ability to make choices ourselves, instead of by a mythical figure on Coruscant. Hope that things will get better."

The audience clapped as Cham stepped down, a warm feeling of hope overcoming them. Zeb and Chopper stepped up next.

"I don't think I've ever seen such an attempt to keep a relationship hidden," Zeb started. "Neither of these two ever said anything about romantics, from the moment I stepped on the _Ghost_ until about a week ago. In fact, I think these two went to great lengths to keep their relationship hidden instead of opening it up and saying that yes, they have feelings for each other.

"But now they have. They've finally stopped beating around the bush and just said that they're done hiding. And I couldn't be happier for them." Chopper beeped affirmation, and Zeb stepped off stage. Chopper rolled off as Ezra and Sabine stepped on, but unbeknownst to the audience, Chopper had slipped a datadisk to Ezra while he got off stage.

Sabine and Ezra stepped up to the podium together, holding hands.

"I don't know about anyone else, but I'm glad that Hera and Kanan are finally getting married," Sabine said, and Ezra nodded. "Ezra and I knew that they were a couple the day we stepped on board. I don't know how other people didn't see it- it was clear as day to us."

Ezra took the microphone now. "And Sabine and I would just like to say, as Rebels, adults and even honorary children to Hera and Kanan, we'll be at your back. Good luck."

The audience clapped wildly at the short-yet-powerful speech, several of them silently wishing good luck to the couple.

Hera and Kanan stood up and took positions across from each other, Kanan in traditional Jedi robes and Hera in her bridal dress. **(It took me about an hour to come up with a good description of Hera's dress, I'm not doing it again.)**

Mon Mothma walked to a place in between the two. "Hera Syndulla, do you take Kanan Jarrus to be your lawfully wedded husband?"

Hera nodded. "Yes."

"Kanan Jarrus, do you take Hera to be your lawfully wedded wife?"

Kanan said, "Yes."

"Then, you may kiss the bride."

Kanan spared no expense in kissing Hera. Only breaking apart after a good thirty seconds, the audience cheered like their life depended on it.


	23. Chapter 23: Traitors and Dreams

_**This A/N will make more sense once you read a bit into the chapter, but I don't own the Lego company. I'm not even Danish.**_

 _ **Reviews are appreciated. -RebelliousWaffle**_

* * *

 _The Wheel_

 _Day 32, 0.7 ABY_

 _6 Hours_

The _Starhawk_ glided through the nebula almost silently, electronics dimmed to the minimum. Nearby, the _Ghost_ , along with Rogue Squadron, were slowly creeping towards the Imperial convoy. The lasers were primed on all the craft. The gunners on the convoy were on alert, but they were all facing the nebula away from the station, instead of the one towards it.

It had been a risky maneuver, using prototype 'stealth' hyperdrives to arrive inside a nebula without Imperials barely a klick away noticing. A full klick might have seemed like a long ways, but when you can fly at over three hundred KPH, it was like walking ten paces.

The convoy was nearly at the intersect point now. Several Y-Wing squadrons were prepping to drop in to combat the space station with X-Wing escorts. They were going to blow the hangar, then prepare the airspace **(spacespace? Just space?)** for a SpecForce Marine hotdrop into the hangar. A X-Wing was going to fly into the hangar and wreak havoc on any fighters and personnel in there without landing. Anything still moving would have to deal with roughly 50-75 Marine squads being inserted into the hangar. The squads would split into three groups. One would take out the comm relay, another the shields of the ship, and the final the control center.

Behind the _Starhawk_ was Fire Squadron, led by Juno Eclipse. The former Imperial pilot had been betrayed by Darth Vader, and now she was out for vengeance. Galen Marek (Starkiller) had also gone missing, and this convoy apparently had a prisoner transport, along with a shipment of Tibanna gas.

"Fire Squadron, check in," Ezra commanded over the comm.

"Fire Lead, checking in," Juno reported. The crew of the _Starhawk_ had only been given command of the squadron for the mission. Other than that, the squadron was still under Eclipse's command.

"Fire 2, checking in."

"Fire 3, checking in."

"Fire 4, checking in."

"Fire 5, checking in."

The Imperial ships were nearly at the intersect point. Sabine prepped the long-range transmitter to tell the Y-Wings to go.

"10…"

The Imps drifted ever closer to the intersect point, a small choke point where two nebulas nearly connected. The gunners on the transports swiveled rapidly, visually scanning the entire area.

"5…"

Almost to the nebula chokepoint.

"3.."

Sabine prepared the transmitter, activating it.

"1…"

"GO!"

The Rebel ships accelerated rapidly, guns ready to rip apart any TIE Fighter escorts. Fire Squadron loosed their lasers on the front of the convoy, incinerating two turrets and a TIE. The gunners frantically turned around, trying desperately to defend the convoy. The few TIE Fighters remaining tried desperately to keep the Rebel fighters from destoying the meager defenses. Few of them actually remained.

Wedge flipped his X-Wing in an Immelman **(Basically a backflip and then a half-turn. Google can explain it better than I)** and dropped behind his chaser, a rookie TIE Pilot. He pulled the trigger and the dome of the TIE blew up just behind the pilot. Thankfully, the pilot didn't have to suffer a painful death in space, as he was killed in the explosion.

The wings of the TIE split apart, one crashing into one of the pilots of Fire Squadron. The young Mirilan in the craft frantically radioed for help, Wing 3 on her craft badly damaged.

"Watch your fire, Rogue Two!" Hera called over the team comms. Zev Senesca was coming dangerously close to detonating a transport. If it held Tibanna gas, the entire mission would be over in a very, very large and violent flash. If it held prisoners, Galen would be killed. And Zev would die, because Juno would kill him for killing Marek.

Wisely, Zev stopped firing wildly, placing a few careful shots on the top of the transport that obliterated the turret. Hera took the _Ghost_ in to dock with one of the ships.

Luke threw his X-Wing into a tight dive, just barely avoiding a torrent of laser fire from three TIE Defenders that had come in as reinforcements. Several concussion missiles fired from the trio of fighters.

 _Chiiit,_ Sabine silently cursed as she saw the Defenders try to destroy the Rebel ships.

Inside the _Ghost_ , Kanan and Zeb waited for the airlock to open. Kallus was behind them slightly.

The airlock hissed open, and Kanan, Zeb and Kallus charged in.

Nothing. Just blackness. Flickering lights at the end of the corridor, but that was it.

Kanan extended his connection to the Force, letting it flow through him, in the hopes to figure out what was in the transport.

A signature. A Force signature. Light-Sided, conflicted. Concerned. Malnourished. _Pained?_

Kanan walked the path that the Force blazed for him, towards a row of holding cells. Looking into one, he saw a roughly-twenty-year-old youth staring back at him.

"Can you get me out?" Galen Marek asked.

"I don't know," Kanan responded. "Do you know how this control-"

Kanan drew back his hand in a instant as a blaster bolt fried the control and shut down the shield.

"When in doubt, shoot things," Zeb called, lowering his bo-rifle.

"Effective, if unconventional," Marek responded. He stood up and dusted himself off. "You got my lightsabers?"

"No, I think Juno has them," Kanan responded. Galen nodded. The ship rocked as several TIE Fighters raked it with lasers.

"We should probably get out of here," Zeb suggested, and the others nodded. The mad dash to the ship down dark hallways was accompanied by several large explosions. The airlock was slowly breaking.

Kanan reached the airlock first, followed by Galen, Zeb, and Kallus. The door opened with a hiss and admitted the four. Not a moment too soon, either, as the moment the door to the airlock closed, the tunnel between the two ships was ripped in half.

Instantly, Hera pulled her ship away from the failing transport. Several TIE Defenders had appeared, and now Kanan and Zeb scrambled to get to the guns.

The _Starhawk_ barrel-rolled over a TIE Defender to let a concussion missile pass. It struck a flare and the debris slammed into the TIE, ripping off the wings of the craft.

Even with such beautiful kills as that, the endless TIEs were overpowering the meager Rebel force. Fire 3 went down in a ball of… well, fire. What did you expect?

Fire Five flipped his craft, narrowly avoiding a missile. Unfortunately, his pursuer wasn't done with him yet- the TIE blasted his engines out, and he was left floating in space until a Defender crashed into him.

"Everybody, we have the package, retreat!" Hera called through the comm. Fire Squadron fell back into the nebula, preparing the hyperdrives for evacuation. Rogue Squadron went next, then the _Starbird_ and the _Ghost_.

* * *

Ezra sat back on his bunk, only just recovering from Sabine's theory about why the Empire had responded so well. Her words still rang in his ears.

 _We have a spy. We have a spy. We have a spy_ …

It seemed insane, but it was entirely possible. The Rebellion was growing, and a new recruit could easily be a Imp spy.

Still, it seemed unbelievable. That someone would betray the Rebellion and run info to the Empire, compromising not just the mission, but jeopardizing the hope of millions…

It was evil in so many ways.

Sabine walked into the room, glowing with happiness. She sat next to Ezra. "Ezra," she said slowly, "Hera is going to have a child."

Ezra nearly fell off his seat. "What?"

"You heard me, Ezra. Hera and Kanan are going to introduce a new member to our family. Get this: they decided to name him Jacen, instead of Caleb."

"Really? I thought the name Caleb was destined for Hera and Kanan's kid," Ezra responded.

"I know! Anyways, Hera isn't even taking time off from the Rebellion."

Ezra's mind nearly blew up, and it was evidenced by his near-scream. " _WHAT?_ "

"Woah, Ezra, quiet down!" Sabine responded. "So, yeah. Hera isn't taking any time off."

"I'd say that's a dumb move, _cyar'ika_ , but it's honestly exactly what Hera would do," Ezra said, smiling.

"I know," Sabine responded, kissing Ezra again. "So, we're gonna have Spectre Seven now?"

"Yup. And we better make sure Spectre Eight is named Mira Wren-Bridger."

* * *

 _2 Hours later_

* * *

"Alright, it's confirmed," Sabine told Ezra. "Hera just relayed the info to me. Slicers caught three burst transmissions coming from a barracks section of Gemena Six. Only one was actually caught and decoded, though. It was the full mission plan for our raid on the Imp convoy."

Ezra had a half horrified, half enraged expression on his face. "So we definitely have a spy somewhere on Gemena Six. Fantastic."

Sabine continued. "On the good side, the Slicers did manage to triangulate **(They can do that, right?)** the location of the transmission. It came from a SpecForce barracks, unfortunately."

"So our intel is pointing to somebody from SpecForce," Ezra said.

"Or somebody that has access to a terminal within the SpecForce barracks," Sabine countered. Ezra nodded.

"But that's only higher-ups, so…"

"So either we're dealing one of the SpecForce, or we're dealing with a traitor in High Command." Silently, both Ezra and Sabine prayed for the former. It would be easier and, more importantly, less stressful- because if they screwed up and arrested a General when it was a SpecForce traitor, well, doom on them.

"So, happier topic, please," Sabine suggested.

"Oookay… Um…. I've got nothing," Ezra stuttered. "Let's just have the author time-skip for us. Could you do that, Miss Author?"

 **Sure, Ezra. Here you go.**

* * *

 _An Hour Later…_

* * *

" _Oh yeah, this is gonna be fun," Sabine cursed. "Why did Mira and Kristan come with us on this run again?"_

" _Because if we hadn't brought them, they would have just stowed away," Ezra responded._

" _Good point. Now, you might want to tell them that they should probably be prepared for the ship to spin and barrel-roll several times, because there are… let's see… seven Anti-Aircraft batteries between us and the resupply point."_

" _Alright. You just make sure we don't die."_

" _I've been doing that for the past couple years now, Ez."_

" _Can't be too sure. Anyways, good luck, cyar'ika."_

" _You too." Quickly, Sabine kissed Ezra while she pulled up from a dive, pressing a button to release several pounds of bombs from the cargo bay of the_ Starhawk _. The bombs nailed a Anti-Tank turret and blasted it to shrapnel. The troopers below the ship cheered as it soared overhead with the grace and sleekness of it's namesake._

 _Ezra ducked out of the cockpit and walked down the hallway to the first room on the left. Inside, Mira was building with her Legos, oblivious to the fact that the_ Starhawk _was pitching and rolling. She had long dark, midnight blue hair, with several streaks of silver at the bottom. She had dressed simply, with a basic white tee shirt and grey cargo walked over and sat beside her, calling a minifigure to his hand and placing it next to a computer terminal._

" _Hey, Dad," Mira said absently, placing a few more pieces onto a ship. It was a line of Legos called 'Earth Wars' that included everything from buildings to armored vehicles to primitive spaceships._

" _Hey, Lefty," Ezra responded, using her nickname. It was derived from her being left handed. "Mom wanted me to warn you that we might be flipping over several times, so make sure that you're ready."_

" _Alright," Mira said absently. She continued to build. Ezra ducked out the room and walked down to the next room, where Kristan was drawing on his bed. He had brown hair, which he kept roughly close-cut. Kristan had on jeans and a green tee shirt._

" _Hi, Dad," he called. Ezra delivered his warning, which Kristan took without a qualm. "This should be fun," he joked. "I haven't ever drawn while in a ship being shot at."_

* * *

Ezra woke up, Sabine lying next to him. She was awake too, looking at Ezra with a confused expression. "Who were you talking to?"

"What?" Ezra asked.

"You were talking to someone in your sleep. Who was it?"

" _Cuun ade."_ (Our children.)


	24. Chapter 24: Wounds

_**Alright, this one is less centered around Ezra and Sabine, and more around two other characters. Also, it's to show that not just Ezra, Sabine, Kanan and Hera get a happy ending.**_

 _ **Reviews are appreciated. -RebelliousWaffle**_

* * *

 _Rebel Base, Gemena Six_

 _Day 33, 0.7 ABY_

 _1340 Hours (3:40)_

* * *

Sabine looked at the SpecForce barracks entrance to position the hidden camera. The cameras would be tracking the entrances with infrared and night-vision, so almost nothing could pass by undetected.

Working carefully, Sabine positioned the camera to a hundred-eighty degree view of the doorway. The camera wasn't the most cooperative device in the world, and despite Sabine's technical expertise, it just wouldn't work.

She adjusted a wire. "Can you see a picture?"

"Negative," the tech responded. "Can't see anything."

"I think this cam is KUBAR," Sabine growled. **(Kriffed Up Beyond All Repair= KUBAR)**

"Wouldn't surprise me. You already have one set up, though. Why do you need both?"

"Insurance."

"Could have used that when you broke your leg."

"Shut up."

This tech always had a habit of getting on Sabine's nerves, for some reason. Maybe it was because he had a habit of pointing out the blatantly obvious time and time again.

Finally, Sabine gave up and removed the cam from its hiding spot. It was definitely dead- upon closer inspection, it was revealed that several of the tiny wires inside the cam were frayed and water-damaged beyond all belief.

"Find out anything?" Ezra asked.

"Just that the tech guy they assigned to me is a jack_," Sabine responded, voice clearly carrying her irritation.

"He's just trying his best," Ezra said, trying to placate her.

"He's not doing a very good job at it," Sabine griped.

"I never said he was doing good. I only said he was doing his best."

Sabine grumbled something about idiotic techs, then walked down the path to the hangar to get some paint. Ezra stayed by the SpecForce barracks, leaning on a wall and waiting for anything to show up through the Force.

"What's his problem?" one passing SpecForce muttered, just loud enough for his companion to hear.

"Dunno. Y'think he's a Mando?" the other one asked.

"Shall we ask?"

"Nah. Don't want High Command yellin' at me again."

 _Wise choice_ , Ezra thought as the two walked away. If they had attacked him, well, goodbye two SpecForce.

Quietly, Ezra floated through the Force, trying to find any trace of the traitor/Imp agent. Traitors tended to have a dark aura around them, be they Imperial or Rebel, so all Ezra had to do was find a dark signature and follow it. It would lead him to _something_ dark, at the very least, and usually dark was Imperial.

Nothing came. The base was eerily quiet.

Something… _something_ was inside the base, with a very dark signature. Blindly, Ezra walked towards the disturbance.

There was something there. To someone who didn't have any Force-sensitivity, it would be as if Ezra was acting on instinct, but a Jedi would know better. They would sense the rising darkness that Ezra was walking towards, sign of a Sith nearby.

Just as Ezra turned the corner, someone screamed!

Ezra's senses turned to overdrive and he sprinted towards the direction of the scream. As he ran, he sensed a darkness approaching. Something malevolent was on the horizon.

He rounded a corner, and around the next, something fell. A hand fell out of a doorway.

Ezra drew his lightsaber, the emerald glow casting warped shadows around the darkened hallway. The glow mixed with red light coming from inside the room.

Slowly, Ezra stepped around the doorway, looking for the red glow. And he found it.

Galen Marek lay on the ground with one arm over his side. His face was contorted in pain. Juno was next to him, also wounded, but she looked far more distressed. And standing over them both, ready to deliver two killing blows, was… _Galen?_

Ezra's world flipped upside down twice. Galen was killing Galen?

Bad Evil Sith Galen looked up from his targets and smiled grimly. As far as he was concerned, he could finish this interloper with one stroke of his blade.

"Ezra!" Good Jedi Galen called, flipping one of his sabers over to Ezra. He caught it and flipped it around, igniting the blue blade. The blades crossed over each other in front of Ezra's throat.

Bad Galen leapt towards Ezra, the sabers cutting through the air quickly as a hot knife through butter. Ezra brought his sabers up to block the blow, stopping it mid-stroke. Quick as he could, Ezra rolled over one knee and brought his saber up in a thrust. Bad Galen parried it.

Ezra had another blade.

Keying the lightsaber, Ezra danced to the side of Sith Galen, brought the lightsaber up against Bad Galen's back, and ignited it.

Closed casket funeral, surely. There was now a one-inch hole in Bad Galen's heart.

Bad Galen slowly toppled forward, dead before he hit the ground. Juno was the first to react.

"My god, finally! I swear, every single time Galen and I go anywhere, this guy is there, ready to try and kill us!" she shouted.

Galen looked pale, and upon closer inspection, it was discovered why. A lucky strike from Bad Galen had cut through his defense and caught an artery in his leg. Then, as Galen reacted to the would, Bad Galen sunk his lightsaber into Good Galen's stomach.

"Raven, get down to Hallway 223, Room C," Ezra commanded. Raven responded affirmative, and within minutes he was running into the room.

"What happened?" Raven asked.

"I have no idea," Ezra answered. "All I know is, there is one less Sith in the universe." He gestured to the fallen form of Bad Guy Galen.

"Alright, well, if we can get Galen to the medcenter, we should- _should_ , mind you- be able to save him. But we need to get moving now," Raven said.

"Why?" Juno asked.

"Because right now I'm kneeling in Galen's blood that is currently seeping from a nicked artery." **(Before anyone mentions it, I know SW weapons cauterize wounds. But kneeling in blood is a bit more dramatic, don't you think?)**

"Oh," was all Juno could say. Raven took out some surgical tape and bound Galen's leg tightly to staunch the blood flow. Then, Ezra floated Wounded Good Guy Galen up and to the infirmary.

Two SpecForce, unbeknownst to the three Jedi and one Officer, looked on with disappointment.

"We didn't get 'em?" one of them asked. "I thought that Sith was good a' his job!"

"Yeah, well, he wasn't. Just make sure that you don't let your name slip. Named characters always survive," the other responded.

 **And these guys are actually right. Because later in the story they have names, no matter how hard I try, I can't smite them where they stand. Maybe I can get Ezra's attention so he can arrest them.**

 **Hey, Ezra! Over here!**

… **.**

 **Damnit, it's not working. Looks like these** _ **Deki Sononai**_ **get off scot-free…**

 **For now.**

… **.**

 **Okay, back to the story. Twenty minutes later, by the way.**

* * *

Raven looked over Galen with some worry. He had thankfully stabilized, but that didn't necessarily mean he was improving. He had lost a lot of blood, and there were two blood bags currently keeping him alive. He was due to get a plasma transfusion later for first-degree burns. His survival was doubtful, since his "stabilized" state had his heart beating weakly and his skin pale.

Juno sat next to the bed. Her face was equal parts rage, determination, and worry. She alternatingly clenched and unclenched her left hand, while her right was clasped around Galen's wrist. She hadn't cried yet.

"Galen's not dead, so I'm not crying," she had said with a determined voice. But now, she looked physically and emotionally drained. Her eyes were bloodshot, and she looked a bit like a panda, with bags under her eyes. Finally, Raven couldn't take it anymore. He sucked in a breath and walked over to the young woman. Several of the medics looked on in interest.

"Juno, while I respect your wishes to stay with Galen, you need your own rest as well," Raven said. Juno looked at him furiously. He put his hands up. "I know you want to stay and reassure Galen, but it's not gonna help if you get sick while waiting for him to heal. Then, we have two patients that need help."

Juno kept her enraged look, but she saw the reasoning behind Raven's words. Slowly, her face softened, turning from furious to placated to eventually accepting. She was, after all, a reasonable sensible woman.

"If he dies, I will kill you," she warned. Raven looked back at her with a completely serious expression.

"I'll die first," he said, and everyone in the room knew he meant it.

* * *

 _Four hours later_

* * *

Four hours later, Galen had a steadier heartbeat, although still very weak. His skin was starting to have color once more, a very light brown. Still not very close to it's normal tan color, however, but it had only been four hours.

He had received blood for around three hours and thirty minutes. Of course, Galen's arm would be sore for weeks, but all in all he would be okay. There had been a brief scare where they had nearly gotten the tube that led the blood into Galen clogged, but thanks to Raven's use of the Force and a expert medtech named Sydney, the blood was flowing again before it could coagulate.

Nobody was in the room except for Juno and the wounded Galen at 1800 Hours **(Eight o'clock)**. Her hands were grabbing Galen's right hand tightly, and her eyes were watching the monitor on the side of the bed. It was arcing and dropping steadily, the sign of a strong heartbeat. His eyes were still shut.

Juno's mouth moved, making nearly imperceptible sounds. "Galen, if you can hear me, please give me a sign you're okay. Please. I… I lost you once, I can't lose you again…" she whispered. Despite her earlier promise, tears slid down her cheeks. She was like a structure of glass, ready to shatter at a moment's notice.

"Galen, please, if you can hear me, tell me, show me, do something," she continued, her whispered pleas becoming more and more desperate as she continued. "Galen," she began to repeat hoarsely. "Galen."

Galen heard her only subconsciously, however. His conscious was far, far away…

* * *

 _Galen walked through thick greenery, wondering what was beyond the so-far impenetrable border. He was on some sort of lush planet, he could tell._

 _Wait, those were shuttles._ Lambda _-class. It looked like it was searching for something. Or someone._

 _With a sickly realization, Galen realized it was stalking him. He hid behind a tree as it moved past, then he dashed to the next bit of cover- a long log that had been hollowed out. He moved along it stealthily, until he reached a thick wall of shrubbery. Quick as he could, he scrambled over it, reaching… something new. Something unknown._

 _It was a house, surrounded by a field that seemed to go in every direction. The shuttle had landed in front of it, but it was painted in red and white instead of a monotone._

 _A small, probably six-year-old child ran around the corner of the building, chased by a five-year-old boy. Wait, how did he know that?..._

 _And then he saw her._

 _Juno Eclipse walked out of the house like a goddess, with her blonde hair in her classic ponytail. She also wore a grey shirt and jeans. Next to her was a man holding her hand. Clean shaven, close cut hair and tan skin…_

Oh my god _, Galen realized_ , that's me.

" _Galen…"_

 _Huh?_

" _Galen, please, wake up…"_

 _What? I am awake…_

" _I know you're in there, somewhere…"_

 _The voice seemed to come from everywhere. And Galen started to feel lightheaded as the landscape melted away, a pressure came onto his right hand,_ and the sky turned to a white ceiling with several light fixations. A clamor of voices from far away. A woman's face in his peripheral vision…

"J-Juno?"

"Galen!" Juno cried happily, throwing her arms around him.


	25. Chapter 25: Inactivity

_**Alright, I have some bad news and some good news. Good news: This story has nearly hit 20,000 views! From the moment I'm writing this, it is at 19,492 views exactly. Shoutout to MaybeImARebel and Spectre6, who have been with this story through thick and thin, and have given me so many good ideas for the story. Couldn't have done it without you guys!**_

 _ **Bad news: There will be no updates next week, over April Break. From April 14th to April 20th, expect no updates whatsoever. I will be in Edinburgh, Scotland. I wish I could publish chapters while I was there. But don't worry, once I get back, I have a crazy chapter lined up!**_

* * *

 _Rebel Base, Gemena Six_

 _Day 123, 0.8 ABY_

 _13:04 Hours (1:04 PM)_

* * *

"Alright, hand me that hyperspanner," Sabine asked.

"Here," Ezra responded, walking over and placing the tool in her gloved hand. She nodded her thanks and continued to work on the hyperdrive. A motivator on the hyperdrive had been badly damaged from a stealthed jump, and now it was affecting the speed and the range that the _Starhawk_ could achieve.

"So, when do you think High Command is going to assign us a mission?" Ezra asked idly. Sabine shrugged.

"Dunno. Don't care entirely, though," Sabine responded nonchalantly. "As long as it's relatively close to when we fix the hyperdrive."

"I don't know about that. The base has been unnaturally quiet lately," Ezra said. Of course, he didn't mean it literally. The base was like Coruscant; it never rested. There was always something going on, something to be fixed, a mission to be run, or a raid to be planned.

"Do you ever think about life after the war?" Ezra asked, looking at a power reading as he spoke.

"Constantly," Sabine responded. "Did the power spike just now?"

"Yeah, it did," Ezra said. "What about life? What you're gonna do, or what _we're_ gonna do?"

Sabine loosened a bolt on the hyperdrive and removed a panel. "I know at least that we're going to have a child."

"On Lothal?"

"On Lothal. Can you tell me the power reading?"

".223."

"Nice."

Sabine closed the panel and smiled. "Looks like the hyperdrive is fixed."

"We should probably test it," Ezra suggested. Sabine nodded. "Do you think that Command will clear us for two days?"

"Probably not. But there's still a chance," Sabine responded. "Can you give a reason to them?"

"No, but maybe if we just ask nicely?" Ezra said. Sabine shrugged.

"Can't hurt."

* * *

 _Same time_

* * *

On the side of the hangar, two SpecForce watched as Ezra and Sabine walked away from the _Starhawk_. One smiled wickedly.

"Looks like we can plant our bombs now," he said.

* * *

 _13:34 Hours (1:34 PM)_

* * *

High Command had been much more accepting than either Ezra or Sabine expected. Maybe Hera had put in a good word for them, or maybe Mon Mothma was just in a good mood. In any case, they had been cleared to leave the base for maintenance checks- in three days.

 _In three days._

Neither of the two had argued with Command, mostly because of the perks of being captains, but three days would be pretty boring. Normally, crews and squads relished any break from missions, but now there wasn't much going on. No intel grabs. No cache grabs, no pitched battles. No major espionage. Just the basics, like hit-and-runs on Imp supply lines.

Sabine took her paint applicator away from the wall, leaving behind a streak of blue. That completed the A-Wing, so now she only needed to paint an X-Wing. The hangar mural was coming along nicely.

She was so engrossed in her work, she jumped a few inches in the air when Ezra greeted her. With several years of practice guiding her hand, she smashed a closed fist into Ezra's jaw.

"Oooowwww!" he shouted. Sabine gasped.

"Oh my god, Ezra, I'm so sorry!" she said, clearly embarrassed by the fact that her guard was dropped so low.

Ezra smiled a little bit as he looked back at Sabine. "Next time we spar, I'll return the favor," he threatened jokingly. "Nice painting."

"It's a mural," Sabine corrected. Ezra smiled again.

"I stand corrected," he responded. "How much paint have you used so far?"

"About a can in all."  
"Wow. Working on a budget, are you?"

"Maybe I am."

"No, you're not. You never work on a budget."

Sabine was silent for a few seconds, then said, "Then how come you asked in the first place?"

"Hypothetical question."

"When did you begin using words like 'hypothetical,' Ezra?"

"The moment the author gave me the ability to say that word in this story."

Sabine nodded, considering Ezra's logic. Then, she lightly smacked Ezra. "What did I tell you about breaking the fourth wall, Ezra?"

"You didn't."

"Yeah, I did. The author just didn't write it."

"Touche."

Sabine turned back to her painting, leaving Ezra to watch as the applicator looped and swirled. Her glove was splattered with paint stains, and she wore no helmet. Her jetpack was in the _Starhawk_.

"Alright," Sabine asked, putting a streak of red onto a X-Wing. "What's on your mind?"

"Nothing," Ezra responded. "Well, not _much_ would be more accurate."

"Tell me," Sabine said, sitting next to her boyfriend.

"Pehea mesh'la gar cuyir, pehea jate an artist gar cuyir, shi pehea generally kandosii'la gar cuyir," Ezra responded. (How beautiful you are, how good an artist you are, just how generally amazing you are.)

Sabine smiled widely. "Ni kar'tayl gar darasuum too, Ezra," she responded, kissing Ezra.

* * *

 _Next Day, 12:34 Hours (12:34 PM)_

* * *

"Right, I'll say it first. I am sick of having nothing to do," Sabine lamented, lying down on the bed. Ezra looked at her sympathetically. He agreed, however- High Command wasn't assigning anyone missions. Oh, pilots still ran hit-and-runs, and ground units still scouted, but the base wasn't as crazily active as it usually was.

"What, you _like_ our lives being as chaotic as possible?" Ezra asked.

"No, but I like the little bit of excitement," Sabine responded. "At least we're only a day away from our hyperdrive test. Then we might be able to go somewhere fun."

"And we'll be alone," Ezra put in. Sabine smiled widely.

"And yes. We will be alone."

"What planet are we going to?" Ezra asked.

"Somewhere around one day away. We were cleared for two days," Sabine responded.

"Alright, so we have two days. Good to know," Ezra said, tapping his temple. "What if the hyperdrive fails?"

"Then either we die in space, or we don't go anywhere," Sabine answered optimistically. "Don't worry, though. We Mandalorians build our gear like our people- tough and ready for a fight."

"Of course you do," Ezra joked. "Because everyone else in the galaxy wants to destroy you, so you need to scare them into not attacking."

Sabine laughed and said, "Let them come."

"You _want_ the entire galaxy to declare war on you?" Ezra asked, incredulous.

"No, we _want_ the entire galaxy to declare war on us _one by one_ so we can take them down," Sabine responded. "It's easier that way."

"When was anything about being a Mandalorian easy?"

"When you get used to it."

"How- oh wait. You're going to say 'because I'm a Mandalorian,' correct?"

"What was the question?"

"How do you get used to it."

"Then yes, you are correct," Sabine said, smiling.

* * *

 _Roughly Twelve Hours Later_

 _0:12 (12:12 AM)_

* * *

Ezra woke up to a strangled gasp of fright and pain.

Almost immediately, he knew where it was from. There was only one other person in the room, after all. Ezra put one hand on Sabine's back, which was shaking violently. Almost immediately, he knew what was happening. He reached for a light and turned it on.

"Which was it this time, Sabine?" he asked delicately. Sabine looked at him with tear streaked eyes. Normally, she wouldn't have begun crying, nor would she have looked so haunted and desperate.

Sabine didn't say anything. All she did was continue sobbing mournfully. The nightmare must have been especially bad, because Sabine would normally not let her emotional mask fall so easily. It was a bit scary, to say the least.

"Ssh, ssh ssh," Ezra whispered soothingly, lovingly. "You're okay. I'm here, you're okay, you're okay." Sabine continued crying. Ezra slowly moved to a sitting position, hugging her close to his chest.

Sabine continued sobbing for a minute. Her tears made a small puddle on the bare skin of her stomach. Her head dropped into a space just under Ezra's, right around his neck. She curled into a ball under Ezra's chin. Her pulse was racing and most of her body was shaking, the exceptions being her head and her feet.

A minute passed before Sabine could speak. "T-they were dead, Ezra…. My Clan, Hera, Zeb, Kanan… _you_ _were dead, Ez…_ " she stammered, dragging in shuddering breaths. She began to cry again, her mental dam bursting as she reached her mental shatterpoint. Even the great Mandalorian couldn't hold in her emotions forever.

"It's okay, _cyar'ika_ , it's okay," Ezra reassured, reminding himself of something he had once heard. He repeated it to Sabine. "Have a good cry, Sabine. Wash out your heart. If you keep it inside, it'll tear you apart."

Sabine took his advice, crying for another minute. She wiped her eyes with one hand and looked at the rumpled bedcover through glistening eyes.

"Do you want to talk about it?" he asked. Sabine shook her head, not trusting herself to speak. "Well, if you need to, I'm here."

Sabine nodded, then lay back down with Ezra. Both of them wrapped their arms around the other. They didn't move for the rest of the night.

* * *

 _One Day Later, 16:54 (4:54 PM)_

* * *

Ezra looked over at his girlfriend, who was performing pre-flight checks. They had been cleared to do a hyperdrive test, but no more. Still, better than being stuck in the base.

The _Starhawk_ lifted off the ground as Sabine got clearance for a hyperspace test. The stars became more and more apparent as it flew through the atmosphere, then got to orbit.

"Looks like the defense fleet is still strong," Ezra mused from the copilot's chair. Since it was just a hyperspace test, they had left the rest of Kanta Team behind.

"Yeah," Sabine responded, typing in the coordinates for a nearby planet about a day away. "They look pretty obvious, though. Do you think the Empire will find us here?"

"Probably someday," Ezra said, unconcerned. "But not very soon."

"Yeah. Maybe we'll have a repeat of Dantooine."

"Hopefully."

Sabine lay back in her chair. The ship was completing the calculations for hyperspace. Ezra pushed the throttle, and they were off.


	26. Chapter 26: In The Eerie Darkness

**_Hello, dear readers! I have returned from a seven-hour-flight to and from Edinburgh, Scotland! And my Scottish accent is still utter trash! So, anyways, dramatics aside, here is the next chapter. So sorry for the long wait, but I couldn't write on the plane and I was too busy/tired to write in Edinburgh anyways. : P_**

 ** _Reviews are appreciated, as always._**

 ** _-RebelliousWaffle_**

* * *

 _Rebel Base Airspace, Gemena Six_

 _Day 127, 0.7 ABY_

 _23:07 (11:07 PM)_

* * *

The _Starhawk_ reappeared over Gemena Six. The hyperdrive test had gone successfully, the ship performance impressive to even Sabine.

"Where's the fleet?" Ezra asked, taking in the most significant feature first. He was right, there was no fleet guarding the planet. Not even a fighter, if the scanners read correctly.

"I don't know," Sabine answered, gunning the throttle of the fighter and moving towards the planet. Several chunks of unidentifiable metal floated around the planet. "But I have a bad feeling about this."

"I have to agree."

The _Starhawk_ came closer to the entrance to the base. Ezra asked for landing clearance, but nothing came through comms.

"That's weird," Sabine mused, looking at the blasted hangar doors. They bore charred markings, and there was nobody in the hangar beyond. Ezra looked around the scene, then pointed to a clear area over to the side of the hangar.

"We'll land there," he said. Sabine nodded and set the ship down. The ramp opened, and Sabine walked out. Ezra followed and closed the ramp.

"It's… quiet," Sabine said, amazed. She was right- in the room, which you usually couldn't hear yourself think in, now you could hear a pin hit the floor. Nobody was anywhere. The hangar was abandoned. Sabine led the way to the blast door that led to the command center.

The door opened with a hiss, revealing the dark hallway beyond. A light flickered, illuminating something around a corner.

Ezra drew his lightsaber, casting it's emerald glow upon the walls. Their footsteps echoed down the rock walls.

Sabine looked around the corner and turned her flashlight on. What she saw next nearly made her scream.

A bloodbath had taken place down the hallway. The corridor was smeared with all kinds of blood, some of it human. A corpse was propped against the wall in a sitting position, with it's gut torn open by what seemed to be some sort of claw.

Bravely, Ezra walked forward and looked around the corner. Two corpses this time. One of them was lying face-down in red blood. Ezra recognized the face.

"It's Delphine," he muttered to Sabine.

"I'm not sure whether to be happy or regretful," she responded. The other corpse was a Duros, with green blood still seeping from a wound in it's head. The blood was also sprayed across the wall. The Duros itself was lying face-up, with one hand across its body and the other one still clasping feebly at a gun.

"How did the killer get blood on the walls? Blasters cauterize wounds," Ezra wondered aloud.

"Slug throwers. There's a type of gun called a Silverballer, Ezra. It's a silent slugthrower," Sabine answered, shuddering. "Choice of the Empire's Death Division."

"Death Division?"

"Trained assassins that specialize in collateral damage and silent weaponry."

"Oh."

Sabine turned the corner, revealing four bodies behind a destroyed turret. They had all been killed the same way- that is, shot in the direct middle of the forehead. The turret powerpack was still full, and there was no other powerpacks lying discarded on the ground. Logic said that the turret had never been shot. The barrel, on the other hand, was scrap metal now, melted at the front.

The door to the command center was broken, the card reader broken and the durasteel slab melted. Inside, the sight made Ezra and Sabine blanch.

The command crew of the Rebellion was strewn about on the floor. Three were Bothans, another a Duros, and two human. Five SecForce guards were dead, limbs in awkward positions. The other was in the corner, looking insane. He held a single pistol, aiming it at Ezra and Sabine.

"S-Stay away f-from me, y-you… y-you…" he yelled, his voice slowly losing power. "I'll d-die before you c-can k-kill me!"

"We're Rebels," Ezra responded.

"N-no, you're not! Y-you're those…. T-things! I can still hear them…" the Rebel put his gun in his mouth. "Maybe this'll end the pain," he sobbed.

Both Ezra and Sabine knew what was going to happen. Acting quickly, Ezra used the Force to pull the gun to his hand. Sabine took off her helmet. "See?" she said comfortingly. "I'm human, and I'm a Rebel. You're gonna be okay."

Ezra knelt and looked down at one of the Alliance commanders. All of them had died the same way- bullet wounds. One of them had fallen through a scanner screen. The shattered glass was tinted red around the break. The Duros was collapsed on one side of the holotable, green blood dry against the blue of the table. He had a single wound in his head.

The third commander was lying on the ground face-down, with one hand trapped under her body. She had a holstered pistol that was slowly falling from her grasp.

The fourth was on his side, both hands in front of him and blood seeping from three bullet wounds in the chest. He seemed distressed, even in death-

Gunshot!

Ezra whipped around to the SecForce trooper lying on the ground, gun in hand. Sabine was on her back.

"He took me by surprise and shot himself," Sabine growled, retrieving her _jai'galaar_ blaster and putting it back in the holdster. "What a waste."

"We've got bigger problems, such as where all the survivors of this raid are, Sabine," Ezra responded. "We've got to find them and regroup."

"You're right, Ezra. Let's get out of here."

The two backtracked through the hallways, once taking a wrong turn and finding seven SecForce and three SpecForce bodies inside a blood-streaked corridor.

"Oh, _har'rangir,_ " Sabine breathed as she saw the stacked corpses. **(Har'rangir is a Mandalorian deity. Basically, Sabine said, "Oh god.")**

Ezra wasted no time getting up the ramp as it opened. Sabine followed as quickly as she could, and hit the button to close the ramp with a little too much haste.

"Worried that Death Division will come after us?" Ezra asked. Sabine regarded him coldly. That was exactly what she was worried about.

"Yes, I am, Ezra, and you should be too," Sabine answered.

"I am," Ezra replied, as truthfully as he could. Sabine's heart melted under his honest gaze.

Sabine sat down in the pilot's chair and keyed the power readily. Ezra dropped into the copilot's chair. The _Starhawk_ lifted off the ground of the charred hangar, but didn't move. Sabine gazed out the window to the cockpit with a horrified expression. Ezra followed her gaze.

It led to her destroyed mural, completed only two days before.

"Come on Sabine, we have to go," Ezra said, tapping her shoulder lightly. Numbly, Sabine piloted the ship into orbit.

Three Destroyers, plus one Interdictor, floated in a naval blockade above the charred planet. Ezra looked at the blockade, looked over at Sabine, and looked back at the blockade. Involuntarily, he shuddered.

Sabine looked at the fleet blankly, then realized what was happening. Quick as a flash, she keyed the scrambler. The ship vanished from Imperial scanners, and the cloaking device covered the ship, turning it invisible.

Twelve TIEs passed by, looking imperious.

* * *

 _On board the_ Ardent _, Imperial-1 class Star Destroyer_

* * *

"Sir, we're getting sensory disturbance off the port bow," a ensign reported from the pit next to the durasteel walkway inside the bridge. The captain of the _Ardent_ smiled in response, a cruel and wicked sight to behold.

"Send a spread of laser fire there. Two second bursts three times, then wait five seconds and fire again," he commanded, standing with his hands clasped behind his back.

"Of course, sir!" the ensign responded, hitting buttons to give the gunners orders. The captain smiled wickedly. This would be one more kill to add to his legend.

* * *

The lasers flew past the _Starhawk_ as Sabine guided it through, spinning it on it's side as the green blasts passed the ship. The laser barrage ceased.

"Right, looks like we're clear," Sabine said, looking away at Ezra, but then the ship rocked from AA Blasts.

The cloak fell.

"Crap!" Sabine yelled. Twelve TIEs locked on to the "wounded" ship and pounced, guns primed for the kill. The Star Destroyers began to spray laser cannon blasts at the small ship, accelerating towards the small fighter/transport. Ezra started to get a crazy idea.

Way back in the Battle over Scarif, the Rebellion had used a Hammerhead corvette to a Destroyer into another Destroyer and take down the shield gate. Maybe it could be replicated somehow…

"Sabine, fly in between those two Destroyers," Ezra suggested.

"Are you crazy?" Sabine responded, surprised at Ezra's apparent recklessness.

"Probably. Just trust me," Ezra answered, nodding.

Sabine was silent for a few seconds before saying, "If we die, I will kill you."

The _Starhawk_ leapt forward like an arrow from a bow, with several lasers providing a deterrent for any attack the TIEs could make. One TIE had a laser strike the small connection between its wing and cockpit, the fighter short-circuiting and crashing into another.

The Destroyers began to accelerate towards the small Mandalorian ship in between them, which had killed its throttle. For some reason, the captains of the respective Destroyers seemed to want to ram the tiny transport. Their prows glided through space, intent on tearing into the fragile durasteel of the _Starhawk_.

Almost there… now!

The _Starhawk_ roared as it split space, moving a full kilometer in a mere second. Three seconds later, the captains of the Destroyers realized their mistake.

"Turn back! Turn around!" both captains screamed, but it was too late. Had it been heard, the sound would have sent shivers down the spine of even the toughest, most battle-hardened warrior. It was a sound of rending, screaming metal, being scraped against another surface with horrible screams. The Destroyers slowly lived up to their namesakes, crashing through each other and ripping themselves apart in the process. It was beautiful and scary at the same time, with sparks and blue fire flying as metal flew off both ships. TIEs were hit by stray debris and exploded.

Then, a scrap of metal penetrated the reactor core of one ship. The resulting explosion made Ezra and Sabine look away, closing their eyes so they could save their eyesight. Sabine looked back first as the explosion dimmed, and the damage was extensive. It had torn a hole through the entire ship, making it three separate parts.

"We should probably get out of here before we're cooked too," Ezra suggested. Sabine nodded, turned the ship around, and began to enter coordinates. The final Destroyer tried to pursue the small Mandalorian ship, but it was a useless gesture. The _Starhawk_ was already in hyperspace.

Seconds later, the second Destroyer blew, taking the third's hyperdrive and shielding with it.


	27. Chapter 27: Shenanigans on Naboo

_Hyperspace, en route to Naboo_

 _D124, 0.7 ABY_

 _7:34 (7:34 AM)_

* * *

The eye candy of hyperspace was quite delightful to many travelers, who would look upon the white-and-blue expanse with wonder, as if under some form of hypnosis. But once one had seen the expanse multiple times, it became… redundant. Uneventful. Unbelievably, mind-numbingly boring. Many Rebels had begun to ignore it.

Sabine had fallen asleep while watching it.

Ezra entered the cockpit when the console chimed that the ship was about to enter the Naboo system, because they had no idea of Naboo's allegiance. It could be sympathetic to the Rebellion, and they might help them find the next Alliance stronghold. Or maybe it could be Imperial-aligned, and the citizens would execute them publicly.

He sat down in the copilot's chair, gazing out of the transparisteel window. Occasionally, the exit from hyperspace could get complicated, so both of the Rebels would be piloting the ship for extra safety. Ezra looked over to the pilot's chair, which would normally have a ready-and-waiting crewmember in it. But instead of Alert Sabine, Ezra found his girlfriend (and soon-to-be fiance) sleeping in her chair, her helmet on the chair. Part of her hair was falling over her face.

God, how Ezra loved her hair. He loved her as a person, of course, but her hair was beautiful in it's own way. Soft and silky, always a bright color. It was like her soul personified: chaotic, bright, and creative. He had nearly lost it when she cut her hair short, when he had gone missing with Thrawn. But the Purrgil had let them off at a Imperial world, and Ezra had been able to steal a ship and get back to Lothal. He had only been gone two weeks, after all. His one wish to her, when he was fairly certain that his feelings for her were reciprocated, was that she would regrow her hair. It had taken a while to get her to agree. But, thank god, she had grown it back.

Lightly, but with increasing force, Ezra tapped her shoulder. Sabine vigilantly remained sleeping in her chair. She was a light sleeper when they were in enemy territory, with senses quicker than a stray loth-cats, but when they were hyperspace nowadays she usually would crash onto a bunk and not move until they were at their destination.

Or, in this case, a chair.

"Wake up, Sabine," Ezra said, shaking her. Sabine stirred, but didn't wake up.

"Come on, Sabine. You need to be awake," Ezra chided, shaking his girlfriend. Sabine opened her eyes slowly, shaking her head to clear the fog of sleep that always seemed to come as a side effect of sleeping in a chair.

"Uhhg. If you woke me before we got out of hyperspace, Ezra…" Sabine threatened, letting the words hang in the air. Ezra pointed to Naboo in front of them. "All right," Sabine finally relented. "I'll get up."

"Welcome to the land of the awake, Sabine Wren-Bridger," Ezra announced. Immediately, Sabine noticed a change.

"Wren-Bridger? Why Wren-Bridger?" she asked, with a sneaking suspicion of why.

"You know I've loved you ever since I saw you, Sabine," Ezra started. Sabine nodded as he continued. "And we've been boyfriend and girlfriend for about a year. But, honestly, I'm sick of not being together permanently."

"Ezra, are you asking?..." Sabine said almost in a whisper. Her tone was amazement, but it could be mistaken for reverence.

"Yes, I am, Sabine. I'm asking if you will marry me. So… will you?" Ezra asked, pulling a small black box. He opened it to reveal a necklace of titanium, with a sapphire Starbird as the main decoration. It was a ten-karat piece of sapphire, which meant it had cost anywhere from a hundred fifty thousand credits to two hundred fifty thousand.

Sabine was silent for a long moment. A _very_ long moment. Then, without warning, she dove onto Ezra, kissing him relentlessly while saying, "Yes. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes."

Ezra laughed as Sabine played her kisses across his wonderful face, grabbing the back of his head to pull him closer to her, digging her fingers into his beautiful midnight-blue hair. She was a breath away from becoming fully intimate with him, but Sabine controlled herself.

She sat up, knees on either side of Ezra, pinning him to the floor with her weight. "So, in case you didn't get it the first time," she reiterated, "Yes. Yes. And yes. I will marry you."

Ezra and Sabine walked hand-in-hand down the main street, getting many glances from the regular people on the walkway. They were mostly looking at Sabine, though, with her beautiful armor. By contrast, Ezra only wore shorts and a grey t-shirt, with a Alliance Starbird emblazoned on the shoulder in a slightly lighter grey. Not enough to pass scrutiny, but enough to fool a casual glance.

"Any hotels?" Ezra asked. Sabine pointed to one on the right side of the street, overlooking the river.

"That one there seems good," Sabine responded. "Shall we check it out?"  
"Sure," Ezra answered. The hotel certainly seemed respectable enough, with columns made of a granite-looking material. Inside was the same as any Naboo house.

"May I help you?" the receptionist asked. She was a fair-skinned woman, with black hair that seemed wispy, almost like fog. Or maybe a light mist. It was hard to describe. She wore a dark blue blouse.

"Yes," Sabine said, taking off her helmet and holding it by her side. "We would like to book a room. Two people."

"Of course. I'm assuming you want two beds?" the receptionist asked, accidentally setting herself up for an awkward response.

"No," Ezra responded. "We only need one."

The receptionist looked from Ezra to Sabine several times. The confusion in her eyes was obvious, even if it was for a poor reason. A young boy and a young girl, both just barely into adulthood- it makes sense. Of course, the fact that Ezra had a lightsaber on his belt and Sabine was in full Mandalorian armor might have been what threw off the receptionist. Most of the galaxy knew about the Mandalorian Wars.

"Ooookay…. Room 31, third floor. Turbolifts are on the right."

Ezra and Sabine nodded their thanks and walked towards the lifts. They weren't made of the granite-like material that the houses were made of, of course. Rock turbolifts- a silly notion, to be sure! No, the lifts were made of durasteel.

Horrible elevator music, though.

The door opened with a _ding_! Sabine walked out confidently, with Ezra just behind. Their room was somewhat cramped, but in comparison to the Imperial barracks that Sabine knew only too well, it was luxurious. And neither Rebel was expecting to need much room anyways. They had very little to carry around, as most of their gear was stored on the _Starhawk_.

"So, where do we start?" Ezra asked as soon as the door closed. Sabine held up a hand to silence him, then pulled on her helmet and keyed one of the settings. She looked around the room, then made an affirmative signal.

"You can talk now," she said.

"What were you doing?..." Ezra asked, confused.

"Checking for any Imperial bugs."

"What? Imperial bugs? Like, trained cockroaches or something?"

"No," Sabine explained. "A bug is a listening device. A spy tool. The Empire places them _everywhere_."

"Oh. Where did you learn that?"

"Basic infiltration, Skystrike Academy."

Sabine flopped down onto the bed, removing her helmet first and placing it next to the bed. Slowly, she started removing her armor. "We start with the merchants. They should know whoever came through this system, even if it was in space."

"Okay," Ezra said, dropping his pack next to the side of the bed. He sighed in content as he lay down on the cushy bed. After sleeping on a bunk for the past three days, it was worth it.

A idea came to him as his consciousness drifted off to sleep. The last thing he remembered was being really, really angry that it came to him when he was asleep.

* * *

 _Day 125, 0.7 ABY_

 _0745 Hours_

* * *

Ezra awoke with the usual mist of sleep over his eyes. The covers felt warm to him, and by comparison the air was cold. Slowly, groggily, he forced himself out of bed. He walked- or more correctly, shuffled- his way to the refresher.

Four minutes and thirty-seven seconds later, he walked out feeling considerably better. His entire body felt more alert. Cold water really did do wonders to wake someone up.

Sabine sat on the bed, a open box in front of her. She had her armor again, with the exception of her helmet. She held a chocolate donut in one hand. "Breakfast."

Readily, Ezra grabbed a donut (also chocolate) and began munching. Only four donuts were in the box. "The merchants were semi-forthcoming. One of them said that there was a large battle over Mandalore recently, so there might be a good place to start," Sabine said.

"Good idea," Ezra started, then smacked his palm into his face.

"What?" Sabine asked, knowing Ezra well enough to know when something obvious just occurred to him.

"We know that Mandalore is a Rebel-affiliated world, so why didn't we start there?" Ezra groaned. "Might have saved a lot of time."

"We didn't have enough fuel to make the jump anyways, even if we had started there," Sabine explained. "And there were about a dozen Imperial worlds between us and them."

"Oh. Well, let's refuel the _Starhawk_ and get to Mandalore," Ezra suggested.

"I think we should stay and find out more," Sabine countered. Ezra shook his head.

"Sabine, we've caused enough worry as it is. We need to go _now_. We're stronger with Mom, Dad, Kes and Shara. And we need to get back to the Rebellion as soon as possible anyways, because we're an indespensible and irreplacible unit. We've been away from the fight long enough," Ezra explained, starting to plead. "Come on, Sabine. You know I'm right."

Sabine looked at her boyfriend, who had his best begging-tooka face on. The worst part for her was that he was right, and even if he wasn't, when had she been able to deny him something that he really wanted? He would let her take the reins if he had seen sense in her idea, but he hadn't, and he was a (mostly) sensible person. But she still couldn't let him know that he had so much sway over her. (She didn't know Ezra already knew.)

"Fine, we'll do it your way," Sabine finally said. Ezra beamed at her.

"Well, what are we waiting for? The _Starhawk_ 's refueled, let's go!"

"Problem," Ezra whispered. He pointed to the hangar that had the _Starhawk_ inside. It had a Imperial Troop Transport (ITT) outside it. All the doors were open and there were two speeder bikes next to it, both Imp models.

"I see it," Sabine responded, pulling on her helmet and making sure that her blasters were free. "Look casual."

"Got it," Ezra responded, walking towards the hangar doors confidently, Sabine right by his side. The door to the landing pad was open. Bad sign.

A ring of stormtroopers was around the _Starhawk_ , guns aimed at the fuselage. "Halt!" one of them called, seeing Ezra and Sabine walking towards the ship. "Who goes there?"

"Kalen Gauss, sir," Ezra said, showing a fake ID to the trooper.

"And who's the person in battle armor?" the stormtrooper questioned.

"My girlfriend," Ezra responded without hesitation.

"Does your girlfriend happen to have a name?" the buckethead asked scornfully.

"Talli Soyuz."

"Hello," Sabine said, with a coy little wave.

"And this is your ship?" the snowman asked.

"Yeeeessss…." Ezra said, drawing out the word to make it sound obvious.

"Well, congrats, _happy couple_ , you're being arrested," the trooper mocked. Quick as a flash, Sabine drew her pistol and put a hole in the trooper's midsection. The other troopers looked at the two with expressionless helmets as Ezra drew his lightsaber.

"Right," Sabine shouted. "Here's how this works. You all put down your weapons. Cuff yourselves. We board our ship and we leave. You all stay where you are, and don't move until we've taken off. You get to live.

"Or, you attack us, and you die a horrible death to either my blasters or Ezra's lightsaber. Trust me, you don't want that."

Slowly, she and Ezra walked towards the ship's extended boarding ramp. The stormtroopers had their weapons raised towards them, but made no attempt to stop them. Obviously, they realized how much of a threat Sabine Wren and Ezra Bridger were to them.

Ezra walked up the ramp as Sabine holdstered her blasters and guided her _riduur_ (lover, spouse, etc…) up the access ramp. As they reached the top, Ezra stayed in the threshold while Sabine activated the engines. Her fingers flew across the controls as the engines roared to life. The stormtroopers began to lower their weapons. Mistakenly thinking they were surrendering, Ezra deactivated his lightsaber.

Sabine heard a scream of pain as she closed the ramp and set the ship on a course to Mandalore. She ran back as soon as the ship was getting into orbit, hoping to find her Ezra standing, or sitting, or doing anything else other than lying knocked out on the cold durasteel floor.

Well, guess what Ezra _wasn't_ doing? The answer is _staying awake_.


	28. Chapter 28: Closing the Circle

_**So, you remember my author's note (Chapter 20)? If you don't, reread it. So, now that you have read it, connect the dots and you should know why this chapter is mostly driven by sad feels.**_

 _ **Lucky for me, I'm still able to stick my head in the sand. Or more correctly, my 100+ page fanfic.**_

 ** _Reviews are appreciated, but you begin a pity party in the reviews I will sue you. Just kidding._**

 ** _-RebelliousWaffle_**

* * *

 _Hyperspace, en route to Mandalore_

 _0.8 ABY_

 _2234 Hours, Day 127_

* * *

Sabine hadn't slept in over forty-eight hours. **(Hooray for quick mental addition.)**

Her eyes were rimmed with red, and puffy from crying. Even to an untrained eye, she looked emotionally drained. She could still run a mile in five minutes, but her mind would be a mile away. She did her daily jobs absently, instead thinking about Ezra's alement.

He was badly hurt, to put it mildly. He had gotten shot in the shoulder, and broken his arm when he fell. The _Starhawk_ had limited medical supplies, so all Sabine could do was dull Ezra's pain. Bacta could only do so much, after all.

Silently, Sabine gripped Ezra's hand, her entire body feeling numb. Her mind recalled her best moments with Ezra- when her heart just started to flutter when she talked to him, when she had let out her feelings to him, when they had first kissed, when they _really_ got to know each other.

All of those memories and more. Her eyes began to water for the third time in thirty minutes. Thankfully, she had only cried twice in the past half an hour, for fifteen minutes at a time.

In her head, Sabine chanted a silent mantra, her lips moving but her voice not coming. It went, _don't die, Ezra, don't die, Ezra, don't die, Ezra…_

The words rolled into one, incessant chant, hopeful but more desperate than anything. Tears began to stream down her face, both from pain and grief. She was running out of energy, and the caf machine was running out of water.

 _Don't die Ezra don't die Ezra don't die Ezra_

Ezra's heartbeat had grown weaker over the past two days. Every day, Sabine saw Ezra die a little and then felt herself die a little. They were connected in more than one way, she knew.

Kark, Mira's birthday was in a week- how would Sabine be able to explain this to her? That she had watched Mira's son die, right before her eyes?

The _Starhawk_ chimed it's arrival at Mandalore, but Sabine didn't notice it. She continued to stare at Ezra, eyes glazed over. She was running on caf only, only seconds away from falling into unconsciousness.

Finally, as a tractor beam locked onto the _Starhawk,_ she fell asleep, landing her face on Ezra's chest.

* * *

 _The_ Ardent Warrior _, Medcenter_

 _0.8 ABY_

 _Day 127, 2249_

* * *

To Raven, it seemed like he always got the weirdest jobs. Airdrops into refugee camps with other medics to give quick aid, then extraction. Combat missions on Honoghr with Rad-Suits against KSA Troops. **(KSA: Kinky Silver Armor. I swear, I'm not joking. *Laughs*)**

Then, you have the fact that every single time _anyone_ from the original _Ghost_ crew got hurt, they always seemed to get filtered to him. You had Sabine getting shot, Hera getting shot, Kanan getting burned, Ezra getting blown up, Sabine also getting blown up, Ahsoka having a parachute malfunction, Sabine's jetpack nearly blowing up after a stormtrooper planted a blaster bolt in the side of it, and so on.

Now, take that and the fact that the _Starhawk_ was in the hangar bay with it's two occupants sleeping, one wounded and the other both dehydrated and emotionally distraught. Take that, combine it with the wounded one was shot and didn't receive proper medical care and the other one is in the early stages of _pregnancy_ , and then add the fact that their names are Sabine Wren and Ezra Bridger.

What do you get? One giant clusterkark.

Sabine looked about as you would expect, with a surprisingly tired and gaunt expression. She was sleeping peacefully, but with a concerned expression on her face. She probably hadn't slept at all on the way, which, guessing from the fuel logs, it seemed like the old base on Gemena Six. They had lost all contact with it three days ago, the day before they relocated to Mandalore. So, it was a two day run… she was running on, say, forty-eight hours? It made her look like a

Ezra looked peaceful, though, in a noticeable contrast to Sabine. His face was less haunted and more content. He wore something that wasn't quite a smile but not just a smirk, almost as if happy with some unspoken joke. His hair was tostled around a bit from the stretcher ride to the medbay, but he was healing up nicely. They just had to keep cleaning the wound and make sure no infection set in.

All in all, this was going well. Very, very well.

* * *

 _ **(At this point, I realized my 0.8 ABY and my Day 127 dates did not match up. So, being too lazy to go back and fix every single date, I'm kindly asking you to ignore this sudden jump ahead roughly 120 days. Just add 100 days to all previous days.)**_

 _Ardent Warrior, Medcenter_

 _0.8 ABY_

 _Day 293, 1346_

* * *

Saxons blared as red lights flashed in every hall, the _Ardent Warrior_ turning on it's side inside of low orbit. The sturdy Mandalorian ship had all it's hangar doors open, sending fighters bombers out of nearly every crevice in the geometrically-precise ship.

 _Keldabe_ battleships and _Aggressor_ destroyers launched ships as well, while _Crusader_ -class corvettes ran interference. They were also going to rake Phindar Station with several dozen laser bolts, mostly to keep the interest off the _Pitating Kyr'am_ -class bombers (Lit. _Raining Death_ bombers) that were going to wipe out the station's shield generator.

Meanwhile, within the _Warrior_ 's medbay, a very grumpy Sabine sat next to a comforting, but slightly amused Ezra, while a rather concerned Raven stood nearby.

"And, so just because I'm carrying a baby, I don't get to fight? At least let me shoot something!" Sabine shouted.

"Sabine, I already told you. Your child is in the very early stages of development, and as such is very vulnerable," Raven said. "If you get badly hurt, so does your child." _**(I'm too lazy to look up if that's actually true, so I'm taking liberties with… basically everything about birth and child development. Sue me.)**_

"So, in a nutshell, _cyar'ika_ , you can't fight because Mira could get hurt," Ezra summarized.

"Kriffing…. _HAR'RANGIR HAAR'CHAK!" (GOD DAMN IT!)_ Sabine cursed.

"Woah, Sabine, calm down," Raven admonished.

"Sorry, but right now I _really_ hate the fact that Kes, Shara, Mira and Ephraim all get to blast Imperials, but I'm stuck here because-"

"Sabine," Ezra quickly interrupted, "This isn't a M-Rated story. We can't say anything like… you know…. What you were about to say. Why do you think the author was deliberately dodging every single time we had-"

"Ezra," Raven warned.

"Right," Ezra said. "But seriously, you only see the author _alluding_ to it. Not, you know, actually writing it."

"I rather thought that we didn't see the author writing, he just kinda decided what happened to us," Sabine responded.

"Guys, stop breaking the Fourth Wall!" a Mandalorian yelled from outside. She looked suspiciously like the writer of the story, with long dark brown hair, dyed blue in places. She wore basic Mandalorian gear, painted all grey with two lines of dark blue running down to the chestplate, ending in a triangular shape. On her helmet was a dark orange Starbird, with black flames around it. She had two _Jai'galaar_ blasters holstered, as well as a small _tanto_ knife. Her name was Malia.

"Fine," Sabine griped.

"Hey, at least we can still see the action," Raven said, motioning to a monitor on the wall. It used small nano-cameras to show the warfare in space.

As the trio watched, the shield generator of Phindar Station erupted into flames, and the _Aggressor_ Destroyers began a barrage. The massive blasts made brutal contact with the station as fighters and bombers returned to their ships. The massive blast of energy rendered the metal of Phindar Station useless, burning a hole into it all the way to the main reactor core.

" _All hands, prepare for hyperspace!"_ a announcer announced, unsurprisingly. The station blew apart as the _Ardent Warrior_ jumped to hyperspace, while Sabine raged about me being able to break the Fourth Wall while she wasn't allowed to.

* * *

 _Classified Location_

 _0.8 ABY_

 _Classified Time_

* * *

The door blew open, almost as if Ezra's pure fury was a bomb. The kidnappers inside the house had _royally_ karked up when they sent a ransom to Ezra, saying they had his Mom and Dad hostage and would consider- _**consider**_ \- mercy at the ever so low price of one million credits.

As if Ezra would pay them.

The kidnappers stared at the smoking door in horror, with the demonic-looking Ezra standing inside the threshold. In one hand was his lightsaber, tightly clenched. In the other was a burning rage.

"You karked up," Ezra announced, looking at the TL-50 Heavy Repeater that one kidnapper held. Casually, he sent it flying across the room with a flick of his wrist, snapping the wielder's wrist in the process. He screamed in terror and pain as Ezra sent him flying into his comrade, both of them bursting through a wall and into the kitchen.

A man with a vibroblade began rushing Ezra, with the intent to gut him like a fish. Ezra sidestepped the man's clumsy thrust and planted his lightsaber up through the heart of the attacker. He crumpled to the ground in a lifeless heap.

Ezra walked up the stairs slowly, kicking open a door and throwing two kidnappers up against a wall with liberal force. They cracked the plaster.

"You alright?" Ezra asked his parents, kneeling to examine them. Ephraim was unconscious, lying on the floor, but Mira was looking at him with a mixed expression: part wonder, part horror and shock.

"Yeah, I think so," Mira said, as the bandit behind her fired.

Blood came from Mira's mouth, speckling Ezra's face. Her eyes rolled up into her head as she lurched forward, landing facedown on the wooden floor.

Ezra remembered nothing from that point onwards, until he was in an unrecognizable room with only two walls. His father was outside, next to Kes, Shara and Sabine. And his throat was hoarse and scratchy.

When they got back to the _Starhawk_ , Sabine told him, "Mira Wren-Bridger will be named in memory of Mira Bridger."


	29. Chapter 29: We Have Room For Another

_**To Raven J: One of the kidnappers was still alive and shot Mira, and Sabine is about one month pregnant as of this chapter.**_

* * *

 _Mandalore, Rebel Base_ "Phineas"

 _0.9 ABY_

 _Day 337, 1549_

* * *

Jacen had been in the world for only two hours, and already he had captured the hearts of eighteen… no, nineteen people. His royal blue eyes looked beautiful by any standard, and even at a hundred and twenty minutes old he had an unshakeable grin on his face, even when he was crying.

Hera held him close to her, as if afraid that he might disappear from her. She had gone through too much to lose him now. Raven looked on happily, and Kanan kissed Hera on the cheek.

"So, what's his name?" Sabine asked. She and Ezra had shown up late. Kanan and Hera looked at each other before they answered.

"Jacen," they answered in unison. Ezra raised an eyebrow.

"I thought you were going to name him Caleb?" he asked, clearly confused. Sabine glared at him, while Hera laughed weakly and Kanan smiled.

"Next time," Hera said, slowly rocking Jacen back and forth. He gurgled in content and began to fall asleep, as small children do. Even as his eyes closed, he had a ridiculous grin on his face. Hera cooed, "Our little Spectre. Spectre Seven."

Everyone savored the moment for a little bit, before Raven got up. "I've got to go," he said, walking towards the door to give the Spectre family a bit of time together. Zeb leaned against the wall, smiling about the fact that there was an addition to the team now. At least Ezra had gained something in his life. He had taken his mother's loss hard, going through shock and denial within one day. He was angry for two weeks, liable to snap at anyone who so much looked at him wrong. Sabine had only gotten through to him after she managed to sit him down and then just talk to him for almost an hour. After that, he had started to fall into depression. He wasn't letting it get in the way of his service to the Rebellion, but something had to be done to prevent him from falling into blind servitude to the Rebellion. And it looked like Jacen would do the trick.

Eventually, Zeb left the room, along with Sabine and Ezra, to leave Hera and Kanan alone. Kanan watched them leave, then turned to Hera. She was looking down at Jacen, still rocking him back and forth. Kanan smiled at the sight, and seeing it reminded him of something.

"Happy Birthday, Hera," he whispered. Hera looked at him happily and kissed him.

"Best birthday I've ever had, Kanan," she responded.

* * *

 _Dantooine, Rebel Outpost_ "Tango"

 _0.9 ABY_

 _Day 340, 1712_

* * *

Ezra had a mad smile on his face as he sparred with Sabine, countering a Sonic Repulse with a quick Force Push. To an onlooker, it would look like they were in a battle to the death, but they were barely past a warm up. Sabine quickdrew a pistol and fired three times, more as a distancing tactic than anything else. Ezra was easily better at the close-range combat, so she had to get some space before she pushed an attack. Holdstering her pistols, she drew her vibroblade again and began a flurry of strikes, moving forward all the while. Ezra dashed forward too, bringing his lightsaber up and across his body to knock Sabine's weapon out of her hand. Just before they made contact, however, Sabine lashed a deployable cable around Ezra's leg and pulled it tight, sliding past Ezra and pulling him to the ground. Ezra yelped in surprise and pain. Moving as fast as she could, Sabine scrambled onto Ezra's back, wrapped her lower legs around his thighs, and put one arm around his neck, choking him with the inside of her elbow and putting that arms hand into the inside of the elbow on the other arm. She put that behind her head.

Then, to end the exercise, she gently kissed Ezra's neck.

Ezra used the Force to try and pry Sabine off of him. She held on too tightly to be forced off, like an adhesive.

"Concede," she told him.

"I'd rather not," Ezra responded, rolling over and standing up. Sabine just stayed on him, like a bug stuck to flypaper. After a minute of giving Sabine a piggyback ride, Ezra got an idea. He just fell backwards. Sabine let go and used Ezra as a base as he fell, pushing herself off of him and rolling backwards. Ezra hit the ground hard, and Sabine leapt onto him, one knee on either side of his core and pinning his arms to the ground. Ezra grabbed her left arm and trapped her leg with his foot, then thrust his hips upwards and used his elbow to hurl Sabine off of him. He rolled with her, landing in the same position but with his legs below hers. He pushed one leg down and slid his own inside of it. Then, he slid his other leg through and landed in the same that Sabine had had only fifteen seconds before. He wiped his brow.

"All right, I give up," Sabine said. "You win."

A leaf floated down onto the ground from one of the massive trees near the old Jedi Enclave. Instead of a sacred place for the Jedi, it had been repurposed as a Rebel outpost. The training courtyard was always full of people, so Ezra and Sabine tended to train just outside of the main entrance. Sabine stood up and dusted herself off. Ezra looked over towards the entrance, where Raven stood, making sure that they didn't go too crazy.

"Not sure the blades were a good idea," Raven called, beginning to walk over, "But the exercise will be good for it, as well as you."

"But what about later?" Ezra asked, somewhat worried to lose his sparring partner.

"Hey, just because I won't be able to see my feet doesn't mean I won't be able to kick your butt with them, Ezra," Sabine threatened jokingly. Raven chuckled. Ezra merely smiled.

"I genuinely don't know if that will be physically possible, Sabine," Raven responded. The wind whistled through the tall grass, creating a nice harmony of whistling that gave a beautiful ambience to the area. "Oh, Ezra, I forgot to tell you earlier- I'm the replacement for your… ah… _lost squadmate_."

"Wow, that seems really convenient," Sabine responded. "But we do need a medic."

"Yeah, next time you do a hyperdrive test, I'm coming with you," Raven said. All three laughed.

* * *

 _Coruscant, Orbit_

 _1 ABY_

 _Day 2, 1054_

* * *

The _Kanon_ 's shields faltered for an instant, but it was already too late. Golan-llls had already targeted the poor, poor MC80, and now unerring turbolaser fire was hammering the ship. A Star Destroyer glided towards it, intent on adding it's own guns to the show. A Hammerhead corvette tried to stop it, but was cut down by TIE Bombers raking it with torpedoes.

Shara wove in between Tartan Patrol Cruisers like a madman, pulling barrel rolls and Immelmans like it was child's play. For the TIE Pilots behind her, it was hell: several of them had already rammed into Patrol Cruisers or fallen victim to X-Wings. One, however, scored a hit, rocking the ship.

Sabine spent most of the ride trying to keep fighters off of the back of the ship, spraying fire at the small targets. Ezra was in the copilot's seat, trying his best to help. Another Rebel cruiser took a hit to the side of it's fragile hull, tearing the ship in half. The Nebulon-B's halves floated away, presumably causing havoc among fighter pilots. The Rebels couldn't keep this up much longer, as they only had a couple _Pelta_ gunships and three Nebulon-Bs, as well as one remaining MC80, the _Undaunted_. They had gotten into the Coruscant system by complete accident, as a result of a faulty navicomputer.

Three more Star Destroyers appeared right behind the remaining Rebel ships, but unexpectedly didn't fire. Several _Victory_ Destroyers blocked off another escape route. Golan-llls would target the hyperdrives if they tried to go upwards or downwards, and they couldn't fight back as all ships were putting all power to shields.

Unexpectedly, all the Imperial ships stopped firing, and the Imp flagship, _Eden's Grace_ , broadcasted on an open channel.

"You are beaten," the holo proclaimed. "Surrender, and we will give you the mercy of a quick death as well as a burial. Don't, and we will torture you before your execution, as well as leave your body to rot."

"As if they're actually going to do that," Shara muttered. Ezra nodded, then commed the _Undaunted_.

" _Undaunted_ , this is Phoenix Two. What's our response?" he asked.

"Stall for time," the Admiral responded. "We need to calculate our hyperspace jumps, so we need some time. Do not respond."

"Copy," Ezra responded, repeating the instructions to the rest of the crew and flight squadron. He got a chorus of affirmatives in response. Shara killed the engines and Phoenix Flight Group B floated in space as TIE Fighters withdrew and regrouped.

"You have thirty seconds," the _Eden's Grace_ broadcasted.

"Chit!" the Admiral, Tidin, responded. Frantically, the Rebel ships began to enter coordinates.

"Fifteen seconds….. Ten seconds…. Five, four, three, two, one, zero." Turbolaser began to rain down from the Star Destroyers.

"Sabine," Ezra said, seeing she had gone to the cockpit, "If we die here, I love you."

"I love you too," Sabine responded, her mind flashing to all the things that she hadn't done yet. Too bad they would stay undone.

The _Eden's Grace'_ s turbolaser fire was interrupted as a _Keldabe-_ class rammed it, crushing the bridge easily. Two other _Keldabes_ appeared, as well as several _Aggressor_ Destroyers.

"Admiral Tidin, this is Manda'lor Bo-Katan Kryze. Get your ships out of here. We'll cover you," Manda'lor commanded. An _Aggressor_ s energy blast destroyed a major hardpoint on one ISD, opening the way for _Pelta_ gunships to spray the bridge with fire. As the crippled Destroyer turned, the Alliance ships finalized their trajectories towards Nar Shaddaa and jumped.

Meanwhile, the _Keldabe_ battleships effortlessly tore through ship after ship as _Fang_ -class fighters outmaneuvered and destroyed TIE Fighters and Interceptors. The Imperials had numbers and better maneuvering on their side, but the Mandalorians had experience, better technology, and determination on their side. They flipped and barrel-rolled over their Imperial adversaries, mocking them and then readily diving on them for a kill. Malia hungrily dove on a TIE Interceptor and raked their ship with laser blasts, ignoring the TIE on her tail. The Interceptor careened out of control and blew up. Malia then pulled back on the control yoke and threw her fighter into an Immelman, landing behind her pursuer and blowing off one of the wings. No time to think, though, as her friend David was trying to shake a rather determined attacker. She flew upwards towards a _Crusader_ gunship, then pursued her friend and his assailant along the hull of a _Keldabe_. As David nose-dove down past the engines, Malia fired and blew open the cockpit of the fighter, leaving it's unlucky pilot to suffer a spacer's execution/burial. Luckily, he didn't have to suffer long, as a TIE Bomber hit him while he floated.

Two TIEs on her tail, Malia wound her way around one of the few remaining ISDs and pulled a sharp turn across the bridge, making one TIE crash and the other get badly damaged. She pounced on her wounded prey, in the process destroying another TIE Fighter. First combat mission and she was already a fighter ace, otherwise known as an "Ace in a Day."

The last Star Destroyer had it's shields leeched, then bombers took out it's hangar, bridge, shield generator and all turbolaser batteries. Figuring that that was enough to put it out of the fight, the Mandalorian fleet left for friendlier territory, and not a moment too soon. Death Squadron showed up right after they left. Darth Vader had just enough time to see a _Keldabe_ jump to hyperspace.

* * *

 _Nar Shaddaa, Orbit_

 _1 ABY_

 _Day 3, 1243_

* * *

The Rebel Fleet had taken a beating in the accidental skirmish above Coruscant, losing two MC80 Battleships and seven Nebulon-Bs. Ezra, Sabine, and their team had barely made it out.

As of now, the ships orbited Nar Shaddaa, patching up hyperdrive leaks and critical damage. The _Undaunted,_ a MC80, had it's hangar bay filled with damaged fighters. Among them was the _Starhawk_ , which had gotten it's shields overloaded and one of the wings badly damaged. The hyperdrive was also gone for the moment, shorting out right as they reached the rendezvous. Nearby was the _Ghost_ , which had somehow made it out with only a bit of carbon scoring on it. Now, Hera had Zeb and Kallus hard at work fixing it.

The _Starhawk_ , thankfully, was built by Mandalorians. Therefore, it was one of the toughest ships in the galaxy, because it is impossible for Mandalorians to build a ship poorly. After the crew got the ship repainted, it would look good as new. Of course, that didn't mean Sabine _wasn't_ wishing brutal and torturous death upon the poor sod that scratched the paint. She was still wishing dishonorable death and a permanent stay in Hell to them.

"Hey, Sabine, could you check something for me?" Ezra asked. Sabine nodded and walked over to him.

"What do you need?"

"Can you tell me what the hyperdrive is reading at right now?"

"Uhh… oof. Zero."

"Ahh… that's a problem…."

"Check if there's still fuel in it."

"All right…. Nope. That explains some of this, at least."

"Actually, all of it. Do we have any extra fuel for the hyperdrive?"

"No, I don't think so. I could ask Raven to go and search for some."

"Do that."

Ezra walked out the door, so Sabine sat down. Silently, she began to recite a poem she had heard once to her unborn baby.

" _Nature's first green is gold…_

 _Her hardest hue to hold._

 _Her early leaf: a flower_

 _But only so an hour."_

* * *

"Hey, Raven," Ezra said, Force-Jumping onto the wing of the _Starhawk_. "Can you hunt down some fuel for the hyperdrive?"

"Sure," Raven responded. "The carbon-scoring is almost removed. Kes is going to work on it in a few minutes, so do you want to tell him or should I leave a note?"

"I'll tell him."

Raven walked away confidently. Kes looked over and caught Ezra's eye. Ezra walked over to him. He was sitting on a crate.

"Hey, I sent Raven on a fuel hunt for the hyperdrive. Can you take care of the carbon scoring on the wing?" Ezra asked. Kes nodded and walked over to the ship, Ezra just behind him. There was a small ladder that led up to the wing, but Ezra didn't take this route. Instead, Ezra walked inside the ship, moving towards the engine room. As he entered, he saw Sabine sitting against the wall.

"Hey," she greeted, standing up easily. "You sent Raven?"

"Yeah. As I was going to get him, I noticed one of the guns might be a little damaged. Do you want to check it out?" Ezra responded.

"Yeah. You go turn off the weapon systems."

"The ship is deactivated. The guns won't fire."

"Okay. Let's figure out what's wrong."

What was wrong was quite serious: the front of the gun had partially melted. The gun would blow itself apart if someone did fire it, but the safety on the weapon had activated as soon as it had been hit.

The pilots at the other end of the hangar began screaming as a A-Wing exploded, beginning a chain reaction through the southern end.


	30. Chapter 30: Nightmare

**_To Guest: What?_**

* * *

 _Nar Shaddaa, Orbit, On Board The_ Undaunted

 _1 ABY_

 _Day 3, 1321_

* * *

"That wasn't a coincidence," Sabine said firmly. "While the Rebellion might have some… questionable techs, they're skilled enough to not blow up half a hangar bay."

"And the A-Wing proves it," Erwin Lintara responded. He was a mechanic in the hangar that had witnessed the blast and miraculously survived. "The blast was instantaneous. Fuel would give some warning before it blew up."

"That being said," the leader of the investigation said, "It's still possible that this was all an accident. We'll investigate, of course, but as of now this is a massive accident."

Sabine turned on her heel and walked out of the room, radiating fury. Her fists alternatively clenched and unclenched, her face twisted in rage. Like hell those detectives would do anything to investigate: they were as reliable as TIE Fighters. Or maybe their pilots.

"So, I'm gonna guess that went badly?" Raven asked as he leaned against the wall.

"No, really, how'd you figure _that_ one out?" Sabine responded gruffly. In her mind, she was constantly repeating various insults directed towards the Rebellion's Internal Intelligence Service (IIS).

"The Force, obviously. Here, the crew's waiting. We're going to the Taul system to try and establish a safeworld there. Hopefully this'll work."

"Taul… isn't that inhabited?"

"Not that we know of. It may be completely uninhabited, it may be full of people actively trying to kill us. We don't have much intel on the Kriz sector as a whole, but it's relatively near Bespin, so we might be able to run some hit-and-run attacks and some convoy raids on the Tibanna gas mining. Although I'm not sure if the Empire cares about Bespin at all."

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Sabine said, happy about having something to freaking _do_ for the next couple days. The lack of activity was driving her crazy.

"For the _Starhawk_ to be refueled, for us to get clearance to exit, and for Shara and Ephraim to get out of the infirmary. Could be anywhere from a day to a month, I'm afraid."

* * *

Half an hour later, Sabine was still using a punching bag that was beginning to run out of sand to leak.

* * *

 _Still Nar Shaddaa, Still Orbiting_

 _Still 1 ABY_

 _Day 6, 0334_

* * *

Raven woke up as his comm chimed loudly. He answered the holo, which began to emit blue light in the shape of his sister Verona. She spoke, but it was staticy. It was barely audible, but sounded something like, "Raven, you are beaten. Give up and the Empire may consider mercy."

"Please, explain this to me," Raven said, with a steely determination in his voice, "Why are you an Imperial, Verona? Why are you trying to crush free will?"

The response was too garbled for anyone to hear, but Raven understood it. He responded angrily. "The _Empire_ destroyed our lives!"

Again, static was the audible response.

The ship rocked once more as a explosion hit it. Raven angrily deactivated the comm unit, silently cursed a blue streak at his once-loving sister.

Sabine woke up with a scream, clutching at her chest. Her forehead was beaded with sweat. Desperately, her eyes searched for her imaginary assailant. It had been so clear in her dream. She was on Mandalore, in the wasteland, with some _dar'manda_ Imperial _Mando'ade_ (traitor Imperial Mandalorian) leaning over her, ready to shoot her after tearing her armor off. Her breathing was ragged, as if she was trying to prove that she was still alive. Her eyes were wide with terror, and in the Force her signature was engulfed with writhing tendrils of pure, pitch-black darkness, the sign of severely dark emotions.

Almost as soon as she woke, Ezra was next to her, looking at her through concerned eyes. He wrapped one arm around her waist, comforting her. Quickly, he used the Force to turn on the light in the room. Sabine started to cry, more out of exhaustion and not being able to take anymore before she broke.

"Ssh," he whispered, wiping his hand across her beautiful face, erasing the streaks that her tears had left behind. She looked broken when she was crying, and when she was broken she wasn't Sabine. Even though crying was natural and perfectly fine, and Ezra was fine with Sabine crying, he still tried to let Sabine cry at times like these: when he would be able to comfort her. He put his free hand on her shoulder, looking her in the eyes with concern within his own. She looked deep into his royal blue pupils, searching for sympathy perhaps. If so, she would find ample amounts of it.

"Shh, you're okay," Ezra assured, looking at Sabine caringly. Sabine looked down at the bed, the sheets and covers rumpled and tossed, folded haphazardly in some places. Suddenly, she got a moment of _deja vu_ , remembering her own father doing something like this. If Ezra was this good with her, he would probably be even better with Mira. A real parenting paragon.

Anxiety hit. How would _she_ do? She was only twenty-one, for _Manda_ 's sake! Against her own will, she began to cry again. _How?_ she constantly thought. _How will I do?_

Ezra hugged Sabine close to him, interrupting her thoughts. Quietly, he murmured, "What was it?"

Sabine wiped her face with the back of her hand. "N-nothing…"

"Sorry, but I don't think that you waking up at oh-three-hundred and beginning to sob is nothing. You can tell me, _cyar'ika_."

It was a nightmare, for sure. "Kanan… it was the fuel tank, Ezra, and Coruscant and Thyferra and all the things we lost…"

She buried her face in Ezra's shoulder, trying unsuccessfully to suffocate her tears. So much had been lost in the war, and they still had so far to go. Where would the Galactic Civil War strike at the Rebellion next? So much uncertainty in this hell. You never knew when you were going to die. Ezra wrapped his arms around Sabine tightly, and Sabine just wrapped her arms around her _riduur_ (lover) and attached herself as tightly as she could. And together they cried. Cried for what they had lost, and what they would lose. What had been destroyed, and what would be destroyed. They cried for those that had lost everything.

But slowly, as sadness dissipated, it was replaced with a firm resolve to make sure that the war would end before the galaxy was ripped apart, and that children would no longer grow up with white-clad goons looking over them.

The two fell asleep, still clutching each other tightly, basking in the warmth of their love.


End file.
